


Breathing again  [HIATUS?]

by Royal_Clown



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), SMPDream
Genre: Alternate Universe, Changed the vampire n werewolf cause it ended up being more of a possesed stuff, Demon, I ERASED A TAG I DON'T KNOW WHICH AAAAAAAAAAAAAA, no beta reader we die like men, nobody read these before post anyway, ratings is there because i feel like eventually imma get to the "bloody point"
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 42,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26752519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Royal_Clown/pseuds/Royal_Clown
Summary: He's a knight in a relationship with the kingdom. Whatever the royal wanted, he did. Thought it seems that now he has to work for something he doesn't quite get.
Relationships: None, Wilbur Soot & Technoblade, i don't like writting romance and, im pretty sure all of these guys are already weirded out by the idea of fanfics itself
Comments: 132
Kudos: 242





	1. First breath

**Author's Note:**

> First fic, imma try get this idea out of my head before i end up obssesing over it. 
> 
> I hope i posted this right lmao-

The clearing was truly a beautiful place.  
The grass was just tall enough to hide should one lay down, surrounded by flowers varying in hue from blue to yellow. The gentle breeze was but a gentle kiss on the face, and the chirp of the birds was an orchestra to the heart.  
  


Hadn’t he been bleeding, this would be a great place to be in.

It hurt so much, laying on his back, looking to the sky with the rising sun, wondering if anybody would find him, or if his rotten corpse would be buried in the ground, sprouting flowers as red as the blood covering his oh so soon to be grave.

His hair felt funny in his face- almost tickling, almost getting him to laugh. He had fought so hard, worked so much… and yet he ended in the floor, dying from an ambush attack. He knows there was no way he could have won against that many well prepared foes, but at least his pride allowed him to enjoy that they wouldn’t leave the forest alive. He had made sure of that.

He wondered if this was a blessing. His life had been full of battles, and while he always strived to have the unbeatable title, he had to admit after a while it had become a little more of a burden than something to be proud of. The original white cape was now red, from him and the others who had helped in adding the paint. He wondered, was this the best? maybe, for someone like him, the peaceful place was the better scenario.

Was he going to be missed? Would people tell tales of him, and talk about how he helped the kingdom? The villages he helped?...

No.

He knew too well; he wasn’t going to be mourned. He wasn’t even going to be remembered by his deeds, but rather the fear he had caused. The king would probably try his best to salvage his reputation, but the people had already sung his song as a warning, not a cheer. They had feared him, and in his thoughts he could only wonder if the royal crown would actually be better off without him, a wild soldier who while winning them a sense of security had shown them such an inhuman will to work that more than once made them question if they had not employed a monster rather than a particularly talented farm boy.

The sunlight was getting stronger and his eyes stung, so he slowly closed them, somehow feeling as if the was weightless, a mere feather about to be taken by the wind somewhere he felt the warmth of a home, a feeling he thought long dead inside him was finally being freed.

Three,

Two,

One…

And the last thoughts on blade were those of a happy man.

Or so he _thought._

Why was he feeling such _cold_? He was pretty sure this wasn’t the very nice cottage in the woods he thought would be his soul destination. There was no warmth, no hugs, no mother-, not even a pet? He loved small animals and would have settled for one.

He opened his eyes, and he found himself looking at a tall ceiling. Or what he assumed it was. There was no end to it, after all, just black fog and the feeling of it looming over him. He started to stand up when a voice startled him.

**Oh, _what_ do we have here? **

Quickly standing up, he wanted to get away from that … _thing,_ that was currently staring him down. There were just too many limbs and teeth for it to feel friendly, but the burning it showed in its eye was enough to pin his feet on place.

**Isn’t a bit rude to leave a _friend_ without saying hello?**

That’s not his friend. That’s nobody friend. It’s a puking feeling in his gut that want to rip his own stomach out and bleed again, to feel grounded when the fear wanted him to pass out and be vulnerable to whatever was currently giggling to itself.

**Don’t look like that, because I might not help put you back together again.**

Wait, again?

**Well, you _did die_ a few hours ago. I was almost too late to grab your spirit and drag it here, truly gave a run for my money. **

-You _dragged_ me here? – there was no way. – What do you mean _too late_?

 **Well, you see my _friend_** – It started moving, and he couldn’t help but gag. The sound was wet meat slapping the dark bricks that formed the walls – **I am someone who quite appreciates the effort and work people do. And you, have done quite a few things, haven’t you?**

As soon as he finished, the other walls started sliding down into the ground, exposing gigantic mirrors that had laid hidden behind them. He wanted to ask, but a strong noise grabbed his attention.

Like a thunderstorm it shakes the ground with power, but those were not the sounds of nature, but rather footsteps of an army. On his right he could see it, the men he had led to conquer the enemy, while on his back played the rattling fire and screams of a village. It was growing, each memory of his battles surrounding him, head hurting enough to not notice the blood pool at his feet.

\- Make it stop! - Couldn’t hear his own voice – Please, make the sound stop!

And just as it came it went, black bricked walls and poorly lit torches surrounding him.  
  


**Now that you remember what you have done –** It started, while his “friend” was having a hard time even gasping for air – **I hope you can see why I have chosen you to serve.**

His vision was unfocused, room spinning too fast for him to see anything, even the repulsing - _whatever that was-_ getting buried in the blur. It was laughing and speaking, noise merging in his head while trying to not lose himself as black spots grew.

**For you see, I have a love of blood…**

Was it saying something? Was HE saying something?

**And I’m just so hungry…**

He couldn’t tell anymore, but everything was black.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_He took the first gasp for air._


	2. The house in the woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno is lost, a bard has money, and a wolf has a bad day.

This time, the moon was there to greet him.

“ _What...”_ he thought, confused and disoriented as to where he was and how he got there. He tried standing up but could feel his hair tangled with something on the ground, the tall grass surrounding him and covering his body almost completely.

Suddenly, everything came back.

He rushed to his feet, hurting himself in the process. Looking at his back, he realized his now _pink and long_ hair was messy and stuck in some weird plant. Pulling it out, he looked at it in disbelief. _Pink_ was not his hair color, and he _didn’t_ have long hair. But there it was, in his hands, surprisingly smooth and surprisingly in one piece after being pulled so hard.

He looked at himself, his clothes were also different, not only in the fact they weren’t stained with blood anymore, but also in the fact that he has some black pants and a shirt with a weird golden pin on it. He didn’t have shoes.

Looking around, not only was him in a place with tall grass, but a he had a feeling this was the same clearing as before but with everything being overgrown it was honestly a little spooky.

He then realized that even thought it was clearly nighttime, he was having no trouble seeing around, as if it was just day with a little bluer light. He started panicking, trying to steady his breaths with little to not avail.

It didn’t make sense. It was his death bed, and yet that weird thing had somehow brought him back with a bunch of questions that were just too overwhelming now. That _thing_ mentioned that he was chosen to serve and had rambled about blood, or at least that what he thought he heard.

Things were still a bit too confusing, but the chilling air made him focus on the first thing: getting somewhere warmer to think, cause clearly this place was just going to give him a heart attack.

He started walking towards the woods, no idea if this was a good direction, but anything was better than standing still there. Walking barefoot was going to hurt him, but at least he could see everything clearly. He would have to check his eyes later; thought he didn’t know if he really wanted to see them.

It felt like hours, with the forest silent and no distinguishable road in sight, just aimlessly going forward waiting for something. If it wasn’t for the occasional crack of a branch at his feet, he would have thought more about the lack of noise, but right now he focused on just keeping the pace.

The sound of water grabbed his attention, and soon enough he found himself in front of a river. This was truly the best outcome, since rivers being _water sources_ meant _towns_ and that meant _a warm room and a roof._ He decided to go downstream, worst case meant going back upstream but _best_ case meant a city near the river mouth.

And with that, he was set.

Somewhere else, a bard was finishing his round at the tavern.

Wilbur knew his songs were good and felt pride at the good amount of coins he managed to collect today, he was going to have an easier time paying rooms in the future. But now he had another thing in mind, or rather someone.

Walking with a speedy pace, he whistled to himself while leaving the main part of the ocean town for the insides of the forest that he knew would lead him to his goal, a rather big house that somehow got hidden by the trees. It was just a small walk for him, but a lost person might have never realized there was a place there.

He reached the garden, checking the plants, and seeing the dummy’s in a poorer condition than last time he was here.

He was going to reach for the door, when it opened, and a bolt hit him full force.

\- OW! – he fell to the ground, two following him in it.

\- Oh my god, Wilbur! Sorry! – Said a brunette, surprised and yet somehow relieved.

\- You are back! HIDE US! – a blond kid said while tugging him up and pushing him in front of them. He was confused till the point he saw the blond guy at the door, looking calm and yet his eyes told him the little gremlins had done something again. “Don’t use me as a shield, tiny gremlins.” He said, and pushed them in front, thought they did try and run before freezing at the sight.

\- Thank you, Wilbur. These two tried to smuggle a jar of fairy dust from my shelf. – He just looked at them, pointed inside, and just like that they were looking down marching inside. – Did things go well in town?

\- Better than ever, Phil.

He hadn’t been home in a long while. After Phil had helped him when he was ambushed by a particularly violent goblin and staying with him for a while his wounds healed, they became good friends. Having his family in another country, Phil felt like the closest to that here. Tommy and Tubbo had just appeared somewhere between visits, and while given a brief explanation, Wilbur still didn’t get the full picture of how someone as calm as Phil now had two of the most hyperactive kids in his house, apparently forever. Even if he found them the most competent troublemakers ever, he had to admit they had grown on him. They still couldn’t touch his guitar.

\- So – Started Phil – Any news about the Capital?

-Same stuff – They were eating something he thinks is chicken, Phil somehow made everything be unrecognizable yet delicious. – The monsters are still in large groups and attacking every few weeks. They still have no clue why, since after the hour clocks they just vanish in smoke. Either a powerful sorcerer or the biggest illusion ever, if you ask me.

-They must be really good to make them, no? – Tubbo asked, looking up from his plate. Tommy wasn’t even finished with his food when he intervened.

\- They can’t be good; they have to hide like a fucking coward!

\- Tommy! Don’t talk with a full mouth! – Tommy started chewing again. Phil just glared and then continued. – I don’t think they are cowards if they go against the castle, but they haven’t really done anything serious. So! – he grabbed Wilbur’s empty plate and stacked it with his – I think this has been enough conversation for tonight. Finish up your plates and then it’s straight to bed, kids.

-Aw! Can’t we stay up a bit longer? – Tubbo said, pouting, but Phil avoided looking at him.

-Stars are already out, Tubbo.

-The sun is a star and you don’t make us sleep then – Said tommy, grinning.

-Haha, very _funny,_ Tommy, but it’s still bedtime.

While the kids finished (taking as long as they could) Wilbur helped Phil clean the dishes, stalling for time. He knew that the conversation wasn’t over for them. They shared just basic stuff with the kids, but the situation was way worse than what they let them know. The outer ring of the capital had its wall destroyed, and there had been some deaths among the civilians. It was worrying, and while the knights were doing a good job considering how unpredictable was when and where the attack was, but the damage was still being made.

When the younger duo went to bed and you could hear their snoring, Phil sat down again with Wilbur.

-I’m worried. – He sighed – It’s stupid, truly, how this has been going out for months and there’s still no progress. -Wilbur could see his eyes fill with worry, and it was truly a sad sight.

-Phil, they have been working. Jschlatt sent me a letter, even the market people are supporting the case! It’s just a matter of time till they find the group responsible!

-You think it’s a group, too? 

-It would just make sense – he scratched his head. – It’s too much magic for one to make that many monsters, I even asked Niki for her opinion and she was sure it had to be a larger group.

-I just hope they find them before thing go worst. – The worry was now on Phil’s voice. - Even the Village here has been affected, since the attacks have been interrupting shipments of good and trades. It’s getting to the people the idea that if the Capital suffers a fall, every single little town is going to suffer. – he stood up – I guess we can only wait. – A smile formed in his face – But now it’s better if we rest. Your room Is a bit messy; I wasn’t expecting you for another few days, but at least I make sure to sweep enough.

-Thank you, Phil – Wilbur stood and walked towards the corridor. – It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I’m sure tomorrow you can tell me what have the kids done to you.

-Oh, don’t get me started on that. – he gave a little laugh - Go rest, Will.

As the warm lights turned off inside the house and the smoke of the chimney slowly disappeared with the stars shining around the moon, the crickets singing and the firefly’s light gave the place a magical state, as if it was extremely old and sacred, and to the blue eyes of the pink haired man, it truly seemed like that.

All his walking had led him here, following the river he had seen the lights of the place and felt relieved when it was a structure, a _human made structure._ He thanked the gods for allowing him to make the correct choice, he got kind of worried when the river didn’t lead him anywhere, but now he was way calmer.

He wouldn’t stay on a random garden, thought.

He walked contrary to the house’s entrance, but felt as the bushes moved nearby, and managed to catch a glimpse of two figures running from the back of the house, into the woods. He thought of leaving right away, but their small size made him worried, was that children…?

Following them from a cautious distance, trying his best to not make noise, they seemed to catch their destination at a rather big tree, climbing it while giggling. He could now see them, a blond kid and a Brunette one. He didn’t catch what they had up there, but he was debating whether he should call them out and make them go home, or just leave, because they probably knew the area better than him. It also dawned on him that he must look like a dangerous stranger with his dirty clothes and unkept hair.

He was debating what to do, when a growl grabbed their attention.

It was 3 wolves and they had spotted the kids, seeing as they were approaching the tree showing their teeth and growling. Techno couldn’t recognize what type they were, but he did recognize the cold smog surrounding them. It was snow magic.

The kids had stopped their actions and now with worried expressions watched the wolves approaching. The blond looked down the tree, possibly considering if out running the wolves would be a viable option, but the wolves sudden dash for the tree scared him and were not for his friend, he would have fallen.

Techno considered the situation, he could try and wake up whoever else might live in the house, because clearly scaring the wolves wasn’t in his options, much less fighting them. Maybe he could distract them so the kids could run, maybe he could-

The wolves started trying to climb the tree, and all thoughts left his head.

Feeling light as a feather, he moved swiftly towards the pack, surprising even himself. The closest wolf went to bite him, but with rather unknown strength he grabbed it and threw him to the side. He didn’t know why, but he felt like he could rip them apart if he desired. The other two wolves then changed their targets to him, and the three started surrounding him, but he did not wait for the bite, charging to the one in front of him with pure instinct as his drive. He managed to grab his head with a hand and punched it with the other one, in a raw fighting style he didn’t even knew could use. He was fighting a beast as one of their own.

It wasn’t till the blood was dripping from his hands that he realized the wolf was dead and the other two were promptly leaving the place, with their tails between their legs. He quickly let go of the wolf’s body, still in shock of what he had done when the small murmur above made him look directly into two now frozen in place kids.

He was going to say something but they started to get blurry, and far, far away from him.

They were staring at the now messy and bloody man that had just passed out in front of them.

-What… just happened? – Tubbo was shocked, not daring to take his eyes away.

-I’m not sure – with that whisper, Tommy stared down to the man and after a moment of complete silence, slowly climbed down the tree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> R.I.P wolf


	3. Suspicious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wilbur wanted to have a good night, but now he has to worry about stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was going to be longer but i want to update once each week, so i guess the other part will be mixed with next week chapter.

Wilbur was soundly asleep, tangled in the sheets his chest peacefully moving at the rhythm of his breath. The dream was a nice one, he was in what he recognized as a palace ball room, playing for King Eret and enjoying his time as everybody danced, the high white walls shining with the chandeliers above the pairs of dancers that smiling enjoyed the party.

He was finishing his song, holding the last note till the music faded, and the people cheered him on before he got down the stage, his act finished and

“ _WILBUR!”_ With a jump, he was up, disoriented and trying to focus on who was in front of him moving him to wake him up. That blond mope of hair helped.

“wha… _Phil?”_ se managed to see the outline of their body. “Why would you wake me?” looking at the poor lighting, it was clearly still night. “I’m trying to bloody sleep in here!”

“Wilbur, they are not here”

“Who?”

“Tommy and Tubbo aren’t in their beds” That got his full attention “and I don’t know where they are” He was going to get all wrinkled if he kept that worried face.

“They are not!?” Standing up, he and Phil went to the entrance, reading up to go out “Bloody gremlins must have gone to the fucking forest! Are they stupid!?”

“They are kids” Phil was already going out, sword in the scabbard and his eyes frenetically searching for any immediate clue as to where they had gone “and they could be in trouble, they could be anywhere”

“Phil, calm down.” Wilbur had a bow. “We will find them, they probably just snuck out to do something stupid” _something stupid besides going into the bloody forest at night_ “We will find them and _then_ they will be in trouble.”

Both entered the forest, yelling the kid’s names to no avail. Phil cursed himself for not moving as soon as he heard them being awake, he thought they were just messing in their room, and once they got quiet he went to see if they finally were asleep, only to find empty beds and a semi opened window. Did they leave? _Did something make them leave?_ His head ran full of worry, and he couldn’t calm down.

“PHIL, MOVE!” Wilbur’s scream was just in time to allow Phil to move out of two wolf’s way, that ran past them. He got worried but they weren’t going to their home, rather going to another part of the forest. He did notice they seemed scared of something, and that set a lump at the pit of his stomach. _What the fuck could make wolf’s scared?_

They both stood there a little bit, before looking at each other and without skipping a beat running to where the wolves had come from. Whatever had scared them could be with Tommy and Tubbo, and that was a scary thought.

 _Was it a bigger beast?_ That was stupid, living all his life here has shown him all it could offer, and wolves were the biggest threat, with their elemental magic. _Maybe a spirit?_ While those little lanterns were never up to do good, they mostly got into harmless shenanigans and often helped people rather than hurt them. _Did something else recently moved here?_ Up the river where the forest was way denser and there were rumors of _elemental bears_ and even a cave full of spiders, but the last one was a _place_ and the first one would be too big to not notice it. _What could it be?_

With those thoughts he ran, till he saw how Wilbur stopped ahead of him, and he could just see two smaller figures with him.

Well, whatever creature he thought, it didn’t match the sight he had in front of him.

Tommy and Tubbo looked worried out of their lives, holding a bloody man in their arms and almost out of their breaths. Wilbur was just looking at them shocked, and Phil felt the air go still.

Then the yelling contest began.

“WHY ARE YOU WITH A BLOODY CORPSE!?” Wilbur started; Phil just went straight to see if they were okay.

“IT’S NOT A CORPSE! HE JUST FUCKING PASSED OUT! _”_ Tommy answered “AND _FUCKING_ HELP US A LITTLE? _SHIT’S_ HEAVY!”

“Are you injured!?” Phil was trying to check them but carrying the body was making it a tad difficult “ _WHY_ would you go out at night!?”

“It’s was for the bees” answered Tubbo, gladly passing the weight to Phil, who decided to carry it with Wilbur, who still screamed at Tommy while helping them.

“WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU GO OUT FOR BEE’S!?” he was still shocked but the relief of seeing them unharmed allowed him to have a bit of rage. “It’s bloody midnight and you decide to go fucking wandering with monsters’ around-“

“OKAY, LET’S CALM DOWN” Phil raised his voice, silencing the rest. “FIRST, we get everybody home. SECOND, once we help _this_ guy out you kids are going to explain yourselves AND get grounded.”

“BUT-!”

“ _No excuses.”_ Silence again. 

They walked, both taller men carrying the pink haired one while the kids went with their heads lowered and in proximity, not daring to anger the adults again. 

Once they reached home, the kids went to sit down in the main room after a specially hard glare, and Wilbur helped Phil take the man to the sofa, trying to get to mend his injury’s as soon as possible, not knowing where the blood was from.

After setting him down, he sent Wilbur to retrieve whatever health supplies he could, and while he was gone, he started checking for the injury.

Only problem, there was none. 

There was blood in his arm, but besides the clothing looking weirdly old and a dirty, there was no serious stuff. His feet looked a tad beat up, but not by claws or fangs, just common “I walked barefoot in a forest” hurt. He had a stern expression, and looked a little bit pale, but again, no injury. If anything, he just looked tired.

-I brought back the healing cream and some bandages, do you think we will need the-?

“He’s not injured, at least.” that surprised Wilbur. “But that leaves a question” Phil looked at the two boys, that jumped a little with nervousness. “ _How_ did this blood get here?”

Tubbo gave a nervous look to Tommy while Phil sat down in front of them, Wilbur deciding to stand in the back as he knew Phil had it handled.

“Well, uh, you see” Started Tommy “We were trying to take a _nice_ night stroll …”

“ _Tommy”_ Phil said calmly “what _happened?”_

That took all motivation to keep secrets out the window. “Well, we found this _bee hive_ a few weeks back” he was nervous, and the brunette at his side discreetly set his hand at his back. “And we realized that the bees were like, not attacking us, so we uh, kind of watched them for a bit? And it was really nice so –”

“ _The point, please.”_

 _“_ Well uh, we found that some _glowing_ bees existed and came out at night, so we wanted to see _those”_ he couldn’t see Phil at his eyes “so we snuck out, and went to the tree, and uhm, the wolves appeared out of nowhere” The taller man flinched a bit “and we uh, we were at top of the tree, and they uhm, started climbing-“

“You could of…!” Phil’s raising hand silenced Wilbur. Tommy gulped and continued.

“So, we were _really_ panicking and” his eyes were getting teary, and Tubbo just got a stronger hold, shaking slight with fresh fear. “well, _he_ appeared” he signaled the sleeping man “he kind of just, appeared, and took the closest wolf with his hand and uh, well, punched it to death” Wilbur gave a nervous glance to the resting guy, and Philza was getting nervous but didn’t want to interrupt. “and we were going to thank him, but he looked straight at us and then just, he just passed out and we panicked, and we wanted to bring him here?”

Tommy finished with a nervous glance, and Phil sighed. Truly, that was _one hell_ of a story, and he would have to reprimand them severely for doing something so stupid, but it was late already.

“Well” He started “It’s late already, so you are going to wash up and go straight to bed, and _stay_ there, _understand?”_ they nodded, and Wilbur was going to speak “And yes, you are going to be grounded with chores for at least a month for this stunt” they didn’t even dare to talk back, and Wilbur seemed pleased with it.

Once the kids left to go wash up and change clothes, Wilbur started.

“Do you think it was like that?” He said, walking to sit near Phil “There’s just no way a guy can do that, _right?”_

 _“_ He didn’t have a weapon on him, but maybe it fell, and they didn’t notice-“ he brought his hands to his face “ _these kids…_ I’m glad they are okay, but I’m going to end with a heart attack!” his energy was leaving after the adrenaline rush, and he glanced back to the sleeping man. “Well, tomorrow we can question him when he wakes up, and thank him for saving those two. God, _what_ if he hadn’t been there?...”

“Phil, it’s not your fault they have half of a brain between them” that got a little chuckle out “and when the sun rises, I’m going to check the place if sir punch hasn’t woken up by then.” Phil just gave him a relieved smile. He was glad he had Wilbur’s help, he would have gone crazy because of the stress and anxiety the kids gave him without him.

“Thank you, Wilbur.” He stood up and went to put a cover on the pink man. “We should sleep too, tomorrow is looking to be a very, _very_ long day”.

He heard screams at his sides but didn’t stop moving for a second. A slash to the right, a stab to the left, dodging and pushing his way between the soldiers, leaving corpses behind while approaching the opposite general. He didn’t stop to protect his fellow men; they both knew how things worked by now. He almost lost his eye due to poorly timing, and compensated by going _faster,_ by going _harder_.

He was so close, and yet when he stretched out his arm to grab him for the kill, the only thing that was in front of him was a ceiling that he didn’t recognize.

It took him a moment, but looking around made him realize he was in a living room, in a couch with a table beside him ,the sunlight entering through the window allowing him to see the bookshelf in the sides, a door and a man in the adjacent corridor looking straight at him.

They stared at each other in silence for a moment.

“Uhm” the standing one said “Good afternoon! seems you had ah, really good nap, didn’t you?

Techno looked at him surprised. Afternoon? _Since when has he been sleeping?_ And more important of all, _where_ was he sleeping?

“Uh, yeah, I guess” his throat was dry, and the anxiety was coming back – Mind telling, where am I?

“You are in our home- he was pouring a glass of water and walked to Techno who tried to not look as nervous as he was feeling. “take it, it’s fresh.” He gladly accepted it “you were, well, passed out and we just brought you here since it was late, and we don’t really leave people like that. And well”

“Are the kids okay? “Techno interrupted, suddenly remembering them. He had passed out after the wolf thing; _oh god how was he going to explain that? “They_ were in the tree, and I don’t” he was going to stand up, but the brunette set a hand in his shoulder to stop him.

“They are okay, they told us what happened” oh _no_ “and we really must thank you, those two were being really stupid! Lucky for them you were there.

“I’m… glad they are okay.”

“Yeah, super lucky you were there. Were you going somewhere?” his gaze felt a little bit too intense for his comfort.

Silence was all he got as a response. What was techno even supposed to say? He was in a place that met the criteria: a warm place to think. But that was the thing, now he had to think about his situation.

“Well, were you?”

“Just searching for the town.” An excuse would suffice for now. “I’m glad I finally found it, and you have my thanks for the help, too” he did notice the quick glare of distrust he got as an answer, but the brunette changed it as fast as he could into a friendly one.

“You are in luck then, we are really close to it” in an almost fake cheerful way he walked to the kitchen “But I have to say, those clothes of yours will get you mugged off in the state you have them” looking down, he realized he still had the dirty clothes on him, but weirdly enough they seemed to be a bit cleaner at some spots. “You could search for Phil outside, he might be able to lend you some for… ah, I haven’t even asked _your_ name, have I?”

Should he say it? Techno was an uncommon name, as far as he knew. But considering he would be probably considered dead by now and his hair hadn’t been pink, the chances of being recognized were probably low. Still…

“It’s Brick” He thanked whatever was in the heavens he retained his monotone way of speaking, considering everything. Too many emotions and he almost thought he would start being expressive.

“Wilbur” was the answer. “Phil is the only other adult here, and who you should ask for more clothes. Can’t miss him, guy’s tall and uses a striped cloak everywhere! He must be outside, so why don’t you go search for him?”

With a nod he stood up and walked to the door, sparing a quick glance at the smiling Wilbur before going out.

As soon as Brick left, Wilbur sighed with relief, and allowed himself to crumble a little. He had been so nervous when the man woke up, or whatever he was, considering his findings. He walked to the corridor to the door in the very end, Phil’s room. Without even knocking, he went inside and directly to the man who was currently looking for something in his wardrove.

“Wilbur, you are back? What took you so long?” he was greeted.

“Some people needed help and got me distracted, beside the fact that since I couldn’t find the place, I had to find Tubbo and ask him for directions.” He started “But that’s not important, I was coming here, and the guy wakes up, I sent him outside to search for you.”

“Why would you do that?” Phil was confused.

“Phil, I did find the place- And there _was_ a wolf corpse there” he was nervous at the information he needed to say “Place was full of blood, and the skull looked like a hammer had hit it. The problem, Phil, is that there was no hammer. There wasn’t even a weapon”

“That’s stupid” Phil said, as if it was a fact “There has to be something, nobody can just go and kill a wolf with _nothing_ ”

“Phil I don’t think they were lying.” That sent a shiver down the blond man’s back “Phil I think whoever this man is, he can punch like a _demon_. I asked for his name but I’m pretty sure he gave me a fake one, and he said he was looking for town, and I just have to wonder if we just left a _demon_ in our home, and now we have lead him into a town” he was really worried, demon were known to take the shape of a human to get inside homes and eat the family’s, and now they had potentially led one into their tiny one.

“That’s a serious accusation, Wilbur” Phil seemed to be thinking hard about what was said “Thing is, I don’t get why he would save the kids then. Wouldn’t if be easier to let the wolves harm them and then eat everyone?” his eyes seemed cold at the thought. “And I didn’t know demons could even pass out, considering they are mostly made of magic”

“But the wolf- It had it’s skull destroyed!” Wilbur debated “No man can do that without a weapon, no matter how much training they do!”

“True, but that doesn’t make them immediately a demon. There’s something up with him, but we don’t know if it’s something bad or good yet” He grabbed something from inside the wardrove before closing it and walking to the door, stopping and looking at Wilbur with a hopeful smile. “I’m going to give him the clothes, and then we see what happens. Right now, we only know for sure that something is weird with him, but that whatever it is, he used it to save Tommy and Tubbo, and I’m not going to question that kindness for now” Wilbur didn’t say anything in response, and just watched him go out the room, standing there till he could hear the front door open and close.

It made him nervous, Phil was a great guy and all, and while he knew that the points brought up were valid, he was still worried inside. He had seen a demon once in a town he was staying at when in his tour through the coast side, and he had been surprised to see a seemingly smiling baker plead for his life. He almost had gone to help the man, but the bartender of the place he was ought to play that night stopped him and told him to watch.

The moment the flames hit it; the horns came out. The face melted, the limbs twisted in weird ways and blood spurted out of every part it could, but that was not the worst part. The worst part was the fact that there were so many teeth, his body started opening an uncanny amount of mouths, all laughing at the people staring from below the platform he was being burned at.

That laugh, that horrible sound that had erased all doubts in Wilbur’s mind, was the one he hoped nobody else would hear in their lifetime.

And one he feared hearing in the pink haired man.


	4. Setting the goal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno has discovered some new things about his predicament .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you guys enjoy!

Outside the house, Techno wasn’t finding Phil. In fact, he somehow ended up almost in the entrance to the town, looking while hiding at all the people going on about their days. Truth be told, it was smaller than the usual places he visited, but he couldn’t really talk trash when he did have a pretty rich life. Being acquaintances of the richest people in the capital did give him many advantages and luxuries few would ever see in their lifetime.

Being alone and hiding from everything finally gave him a time to think. He had kind of assumed he was thought dead, but if he was still in the clearing, didn’t that mean nobody ever found his body? He was for sure that whatever that blood thing did, the body he was using _was_ his own. He had proven it easily enough by checking the stabs wounds, now healed but with the scars still there.

If he wasn’t found, maybe somebody could be looking for him? He didn’t consider the royal crown, Xisuma was a kind King but he wasn’t a dumb one, and Techno being out of the picture could be used as a symbol of the end of the violence that the raid of the last demon settlements had brought, something that Techno had been in charge of, and while it was a good thing the smell of blood was there anyway.

Maybe someone like Timedeo would be a good option, he was the closest thing to a friend he had, and while they _did_ have a purely business relationship, he could entertain the idea that maybe he wouldn’t turn his head around and aid him. Maybe he could help him get home, after all, maybe the best thing he could do was finally retire. He would still have to sort out the _other_ thing, thought.

He didn’t know why he acted like that, so violent and beastly against the wolf. He didn’t even know he could punch that hard, but at that moment it felt so _right_ to do it that he didn’t even question it. What had scared him was that when looking at the kids, he could see that his own shock was reflected with fear in their eyes, and he had a feeling that if he hadn’t pass out, maybe something else would of died that night. It was scary, how vivid the violent impulse was in his mind, like it was still with him, just waiting for something. The Blood God, whatever that was, did something to him, and the implications were something he didn’t want to think about.

He never heard of someone being brought back to life, at least not as a _living_ person. Keralis was known for necromancy strong enough to bring back a dozen of zombies at once, and it was no wonder he was assigned as one of the high wizards, but even he couldn’t bring someone the same as before they died. But maybe he could have some information to help.

So the plan was set, he would need to find Timedeo, get him to help getting to Keralis, and then he could fix himself.

Would he die if he did, thought?

He didn’t have time to reflect on this question as a very loud kid came to him.

“What are you doing here, big man?” It was the blonde kid from the tree, with the brunette one behind him.

“Are you okey?” The shorter one asked. “You don’t look too good” Techno could see he meant it and wondered if his face had a weird expression.

“I’m okay. I was looking for… I think his name it’s Phil? Wilbur sent me to look for him.” He answered, trying his best to remember what he was told. Did the guy have stripped hair?

“Oh shit, Wilbur’s back? Then we have to go back, Tubbo. I don’t want Phil to get mad” Said the blond looking back at the brunette.

“Awww, I don’t want to do another chore” Techno noticed that his putting face was looking at some bags they had with them, left in the floor in the meanwhile. He stood up.

“Do you need help carrying those?” He offered. He wanted to find the Phil guy soon and get the clothes so he could go, worried still in the inside about the situation. “We both need to go to Phil and Wilbur, don’t we?”

“Well if you say it like that, how could we refuse?” the blond stepped away to let him grab the bags, and he did. The brunette seemed a bit nervous at the sight.

“Tommy, Phil will get angry if we made a guest do the work!”

“Oh, come on, we just need to swap before we arrive!” Tommy looked at Techno “You wouldn’t sell us out, right?” even though he was smiling, he was still looking for confirmation. Techno chuckled internally at the sight.

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t betray someone’s trust.” That seemed enough for both, and they lead the way, going by the back of town to the entrance of the tray to Phil’s house. They were just a few meters into the path when Tubbo suddenly gasped and turned around.

“I forgot to leave an offering!” he shouted while running back into town “Wait for me!”

Techno just saw him run and turned to Tommy. “An offering? They have a God statue here?”

“Oh yeah, Tubbo always prays to Xisuma” Techno looked at him with an intense glare “What? Did I say something weird?”

“Why would you pray to Xisuma?” he was confused.

“What do you mean? He’s the Peace God after all”

He almost dropped the bags when hearing that. What this kid Tommy mean by GOD?

“Tommy, Xisuma is the King” this was a fact, and tommy must have a lot of admiration. That had to be it.

“That’s just the legend. That he was a King and brought us the current peace times, and that he was so good he ascended into being a God because heaven stuff” Techno could feel his blood go cold, sweat at the nape of his neck and he had to make an effort not to gasp. “Tubbo likes it, so he always leaves some flowers at the base of the statue. And he… are you, okay?” He was looking directly at him, but the words took a moment to leave his mouth.

“Tommy… who’s the current ruler?”

“Well, it’s Queen False, obviously, even if Prince Eret is going to be crowned soon-”

Techno didn’t listen to the rest of the talk, leaving it as a muffled sound in the background. False? Who was that? Who was Prince Eret? It didn’t make sense. Xisuma wasn’t even that old, and yet Tommy spoke of him as if he was just a concept. The pounding in his heart was getting louder, and his throat felt dry. What did this mean? How could it be that Xisuma wasn’t the current king?

“…And Wilbur says that the Royal Family shouldn’t be named that, considering they aren’t related at all!” Tommy was expecting an answer, going by the look he was giving Techno. He hadn’t payed attention, and he couldn’t think of anything elaborate.

“That’s interesting” he muttered, trying to calm himself as to not panic the Child in front of him.

“Honestly, how can you not know this? Did you even go to school…? Wait, I haven’t even asked your name yet!” Lucky him, he hadn’t noticed the anxiety attack that was growing inside of him.

“It’s Brick” he was saved of further explanation by the arrival of Tubbo.

“I’m back! I’m sorry, I just had to leave some flowers, I can’t miss a day!” He was panting a little, but quickly recovered and they started walking again, leaving Techno in autopilot to follow after them.

“Did you know his name is Brick? Weird one!”

“Tommy, you can’t say that!”

“But it is weird! And cool! It’s a Unique name, not like _Tommy_ ”

Techno was starting to hear a ringing in his ears and prayed that the kids would just chatter to themselves and allow him to bury himself in thought. This was clearly something he hadn’t anticipated, and he was feeling the panic. If Xisuma was _probably_ dead by now, that meant a lot of things. The first, he might have spent dead a longer time than anticipated, and that just opened a big can of worms he wasn’t ready to tackle. He thought of his now long hair, was that not an effect of the curse he was on? Could it be a normal testament of time? If so, just how long had he been out? His plan didn’t seem very convincing right now. If Xisuma was out, it probably meant that Timedeo was not here anymore, either. He could feel his chest tighten, just who was left? Was there even someone left?

A tap on the head took him out of his mind with a jump.

“woah dude, I just need the bags!” Tommy was clearly taken back by the reaction, and Tubbo looked at him with concern.

It took him a moment to process what was said. “Sure” He passed the bags along, realizing they were already near the house, a guy he didn’t recognize was outside with Wilbur. Must be that guy, Phil.

Tommy gladly accepted a bag with Tubbo taking the other one, both starting to walk towards the house. Techno just stood there, still shaken inside, not daring to take a step. He considered running away, in that moment the woods seemed like the most tempting offer. It would only take a sprint and he would be gone, a fleeting thought in the house inhabitants mind but that would soon wither.

“Brick? What are you waiting for?” Tubbo called to him, stopping him from turning around. He sighted and walked towards the kids that had unknowingly set an end to his plan and hope.

Wilbur was still worried about the new guy, but since Phil had already stated he wouldn’t be hostile to him because of how he saved Tommy and Tubbo, there wasn’t much he could besides be alert and hope Phil was right.

He followed him to the outside and saw no indication of the pink haired man. There was only Phil, Him, and the plants, which were growing quite nicely. He looked to the small roofed terrace, where the grass grew around the walls and through the floor, showing the rather rough state it was in. This was where Phil saved some spare weapons and most practice stuff, he has told Wilbur about some training he did in the past for 5 years straight, explaining how he went in solitary confinement to a very remote land where no town was settled, and stayed there to train. He had said it was because of a tale he heard, about a great knight who would go to that forest to train and gained amazing skills because of it.

Wilbur thought it was a reckless thing to spend 5 years alone, but he wouldn’t dare tell that to Phil. He turned around when Phil asked him to bring him some sprouts, he left in the table next to the box of used dummy’s, and it was there he heard steps coming to them. 

“We are back! We brought everything!” Tommy stated walking towards the entrance “These are really heavy! You should take off a week of our punishment, don’t you think?”

“That’s a good joke, Tommy. Go inside and put everything in order” Phil said, smiling at them. Tubbo smiled back following a pouting Tommy inside. Then Phil turned to the man left behind, standing up to greet him. “I believe we haven’t introduced ourselves yet, have we? My name’s Philza, but everybody calls me just Phil” He stretched his hand and smiled at the guy he was noticing looked rather shaken.

“Brick.” Phil saw he was still in the rugged clothes he was before. “Thanks for the help” His words didn’t match the deplorable state he had, but he would rather not point that out.

“Well Brick, I believe we haven’t thanked you properly yet. Since it’s getting close to lunch time, why don’t you stay for lunch?” Techno looked like he was going to deny the offer, but his stomach growled at the prospect of food, making him blush a little. “Seems you agree!” Phil laughed a little. “But we should give you a change of clothes first. No offense, but you are looking kind of bad right now. I have a change of clothes in that table next to Wilbur, there’s a tub out in the back, there should be water there already”

Techno nodded and went to retrieve the clothes, noticing how Wilbur scurried away to the house as soon as he approached him. Couldn’t blame the guy, really.

Phil followed Wilbur, leaving techno alone.

Techno grabbed the clothes and went to the back, spotting the tub and two buckets of water next to it. He undressed and entered the tub, they probably warmed the water beforehand, leaving a comfortable place to be. He decided to spend his time in the water to think.

They seemed nice; Phil was being way too generous with him already. Taking care of him after passing out was more than enough payment, but everything else was probably not as a way of saying thank you, but rather because he must of noticed that techno had absolutely nothing, and going by how he had acted, Techno got the vibe he was generally a good person.

He contemplated what he would do after lunch, after all he expected that it was then he would have to leave. It wasn’t like that wasn’t expected, but now he didn’t know what to do next. Without anyone close or anybody at all who knew him, he had a rising anxiety about how things would pan out.

Right now, he knew something was wrong with him, something caused by a self-proclaimed Blood God, and he felt if he told anybody about that he would be crucified in the spot. That was a no-no. besides, he didn’t really trust anybody enough to tell.

Or maybe that was okay. After all, he wasn’t even supposed to be here. He was wondering if he had become something of a demon, being resurrected with changed features and an unknown trigger to a violent urge. Maybe it would be a good idea to throw himself out in the open and let the earth reclaim him.

But deep inside, he had hope. In the tub, with warm water and a promise of an accompanied lunch, he thought that maybe this was a second chance. When he was dying, he had been happy of being freed from the violent life he had led, the burden of maintaining a position that he had no longer an interest on. He could start a new life, and while it hurt him inside that everybody he knew was probably gone by now, he wanted to selfishly feel like this was a chance, that maybe he could avoid the violent moments and manage to have a peaceful new life.

He exited the tub with a calmer stance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda short, had to write between classes :'D


	5. Taking in the clues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have a lovely lunch, and the kids want to show off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoy <3   
> Also, I don't do shipping in these fics, but i also would aprecciate if there's any CC that doesn't like fics in general, I would aprecciate if you guys could tell me so i don't add them/ remove them :)!

He gently opened the door.

The clothes Phil gave him fit techno quite nicely, and the blond man seemed satisfied with the results, judging at the approval nod he gave him.

“I was worried they wouldn’t fit!” He signaled for techno to sit across from him, which he complied. Wilbur was next to Phil, and Tubbo was next to Techno’s place. Tommy was by the table head, discussing something with Wilbur while Tubbo giggled at them.

As soon as Techno approached the 3 quieted, with the kids smiling and the tallest trying his best to fake a smile. He wouldn’t have to worry much longer for Techno wasn’t staying here much longer, he had decided that if this was an opportunity at a peaceful life, the first step would be scoring a job, probably rent the cheapest room and work his way up till he could travel. He had curiosity about how his old home ended up, and if there was anything of value left there.

But to do all that, he would need a cover story and some answers from these guys.

“I’m glad you accepted my invitation, Brick” Phil started “We can’t really repay your help, but I hope at least the food is enjoyable” and it sure did look like it, they had a chicken that looked like the tastiest piece of meat Techno had ever seen, and had some salads and potatoes served too. He wondered if they always got to have nice food like this.

“You have helped me greatly already” He tried to sound sympathetic, but that had never been his forte. A smile could help him.

“I’m glad to hear that!” he was putting a chicken wing on his plate, while Tubbo offered techno some salad.

“So, Brick, do you know how to use swords?” Tommy surprised him with that question, both him and the shorter brunette looking at him with expectant eyes. Wilbur didn’t seem happy about it.

“Tommy don’t start” he warned, but was promptly ignored.

“Cause’ me and Tubbo are really good, I mean I’m better, but we wondered if someone with your strength would know.” He was grinning and moving his hands as if to make his words more prominent. “If you don’t, we could show you how, I’m a bit of an expert…” Phil seemed to be going to say something, but Techno noticed it too late and already answered.

“You could say I know a thing or two about sword fighting” he tried to remain calm but found himself amused at his own comment. Unknown to him, he had switched on the energy switch on the kids.

“Oh, do you? Mind showing? I bet I can beat you!” Tommy started boasting about how great he was.

“Can you show us? Do you know any techniques?” Tubbo seemed just as excited about it. It was a little bit too much energy for Techno, and he quickly regretted not lying about his knowledge. He gave a quick glance at Phil, who tried to help.

“Come on kids, I’m sure Brick has stuff to do!” glancing at Techno, who knew he couldn’t lie since he needed the answers.   
“Uh… yeah… I need to go job hunting…” This wasn’t how he meant to start the topic; he had gone over some lines but clearly that wasn’t happening.

“Oh” Phil was taken aback by that answer, and the kids seemed to like the answer.

“Well, we know everybody in town! And the board of requests!”

“Yeah, we can show you it!”

“After we fight!”

“Yeah!!”

They were both looking excited about it, and Phil gave Techno a “please?” look. He couldn’t really refuse peer pressure.

“Sure”

The kids cheered and did their best to finish their plates as quick as possible, standing up and running to the door as fast as they could. “We are going to set everything!” said Tubbo to Phil, who didn’t even try to stop them.

The three left at the table stared at the door in silence.

“Well, I hope you know how to manage kids” said Wilbur “Cause those two are quite annoying when they want to”

“I’m sorry Brick, I hope this isn’t too much to ask for” Phil gave him an apologetic look.

“It’s fine. I brought this upon myself” he assured Phil, who seemed a bit more relaxed with that answer.

“Need a job then?” Wilbur was giving him a curious look, tilting his head a little.

“Mhm” he did a little nod “I have somewhere to go next, and I’ll need money for that”

“Where are you going?” Asked Wilbur a little bit too fast, and upon realizing quickly added “Only if you want to tell us. Could help to recommend jobs” he looked at his plate and started eating, sparing quick glances.

“I have to go to Skytown-” He realized his mistake when both looked at him like he had just said pigs could fly. He could feel himself panic, and a bunch of stuff went through his head, maybe the place wasn’t called that anymore? Maybe it didn’t exist anymore?

“Pardon my questions, but why would you be going to those ruins?” Techno noticed how tense Wilbur was, and was quickly regretting his choices.

“I, uh, need something from there” and that thing was his home. But apparently that might not even exist anymore.

“Oh yeah? And _what_ could that be?”

“Wilbur, calm down.” Phil turned back to Techno. “But it’s true that it’s a very dangerous place” he seemed nervous. “Not only is in shambles, but it’s well known that the demons that roam there are really strong. Are you sure that’s the place?” Techno could feel the tension and it was not doing wonders to his anxiety.

“Uh, I think? It’s south and in a secluded valley between mountains, right?” he hoped this was just a coincidence and the name had passed to another place, and that his hometown was just under another name. The looks on Wilbur’s and Phil’s faces told him it probably wasn’t the case.

“That’s the place.” Phil seemed to still be in disbelief.

“Is it that bad?” he had already messed up so he better roll with it and maybe it would fix itself.

“Well the place is crawling with every single bad thing from hell and nobody can even get close, so yes I would say it’s bad!” Wilbur seemed to not process why Techno seemed so calm.

“Are you sure you have to go there?” Phil seemed one step from a full-on speech about why that was a bad idea.

“It’s just that, I left some stuff there?” That was a bad answer, going by how Wilbur seemed to have his panic increase. “I mean I didn’t, it’s just that there something there I have to get and uh, well, I think I can skip it?” he quickly rambled, his mind running with possible answers.

“Is there _any_ other place you could go to?”

He thought of the other idea, Keralis tower. “Ah, there’s this wizard tower, it’s run by-” he stopped with realization and quickly corrected himself. “I mean, it had a famous necromancer. I think he went by Keralis?” They relaxed, that was a good answer.

“Oh, the dark tower?” Phil seemed way calmer about this option. “It’s in the dark wood forest near the capital. Nobody goes there anymore”

“So I should be able to go there safely?”

“Eeeh… no, not really. I don’t know the details either, but apparently you need to have a special permission to get there.” Well that sucked. “Can’t blame you for not knowing, since not much people show interest in that place anyway. If anything, it has a bad luck reputation”

“Really? Why is that?” It was a former necromancer tower, but that was hardly a problem since Keralis made sure the face wasn’t recognizable and only brough them as a last resource, preferring to have animals. One could say that his line of work gave him a special respect for the dead and the concept of death in general.

“Brick do you know anything at all?” Wilbur seemed to be confused, and for the first time Techno was sure there was no other emotion besides it.

“Wilbur, don’t be rude!” said Phil “But It’s a bit surprising, since it’s a well-known tale.” At Techno’s lack of recognition, he continued “Well, you know it was The Great Keralis who managed the tower back in the start of Queen’s False reign. He was known for his necromancy, yes, but people rumor that he had reached such a dept connection with dead that even to this day he roams it, and that that’s the reason the tower is closed.” He and Wilbur trembled at the thought, but Techno was thinking that knowing Keralis, the mad man might as well find a way to keep on going.

“Well, that sure is something!” And now to try and go back to information. “But I’m more worried about the permission thing. How do I exactly get one?”

“Ah that has to do with researchers and adventurers. When you reach a certain level at either those jobs in the guild, they write you up as being able to go certain places” Phil answered like it was no big deal.

“You seem to know a lot, are you an adventurer?” Techno found himself asking.

“Ah, not anymore. I used to but” he spared Wilbur a glance “After a while I realized that maybe setting down was the better option. And with the kids, it’s not like I have the time for jobs like those”

“But Phil was a great adventurer, he was well known in his time!” Wilbur chirped in “I myself sing some of his tales, he even helped this town by defeating a witch and the people gave him this place to live in!” Phil looked embarrassed at those comments but smiled anyway. They just chit chatted, Wilbur going on about his songs, and Techno felt blessed that the conversation had changed courses. He wouldn’t been able to handle another round of showing how little he knew about stuff.

He went had just finished his plate when the kid’s duo came in looking like they had run over the whole town, sweaty but with excitement.

“It’s ready! Everything’s ready!” announced Tommy “We can fight!” he went to Techno and started to drag him outside, Tubbo helping by pushing him from the back. He just allowed himself to be taken.

The three of them closed the door after them, and Phil turned to Wilbur.

“I’m telling you Wilbur, if that guy’s a demon, he’s not a very good one”

“I’ll give you that, if anything he’s either playing a really weird game or he’s just dumb.” Admitted Wilbur. “I don’t think he was lying, but it’s still a concerning choice, the ruins aren’t even approached by the royal guard” He seemed truly confused “Is he playing dumb? Surely this is just way too dumb?”

“I think we should watch over a bit more. He’s not leaving the town until he has enough money, so we have time.” He brough a hand to his chin in a pensive pose. “The more I think about it, the less it makes sense. He first said he was looking for this town, right?” Wilbur nodded. “And he showed up without anything, I mean, the guys didn’t even have decent clothing. And now the ruins, he seemed genuinely surprised about that. “he lowered his hands standing up, and started moving towards the door, Wilbur following close behind. “For now, just keep watch. And never leave him alone” and they went out.

The view that they received was clearly not what they had expected. Knowing the kids, they would be annoying the guy with clearly fake story’s and maybe trying to show off their sword’s skills.

But what was happening was that Brick stood in between the two kids, effortlessly countering both the kids, which were getting progressively annoyed at not being able to even make the man leave his spot. Phil was surprised, while the kids weren’t great at fights, they weren’t bad either. If anything, they were above average thanks to train Phil himself gave them.

And this dude was countering both, making it look like the easiest thing in the world.

He gave Wilbur a quick glance and went to intervene. He wanted to test something.

“You seem to be good with the sword after all!” He said in his best cheerful tone. “Mind if I join you?” The trio just stared at him for a moment, Tommy and Tubbo sparing each other a mischievous glance and going up to Phil, giving him a sword. Techno just sighed in resignation.

“Kick his ass, Phil!” Tommy cheered, getting a light punch from Wilbur, and giggles from Tubbo. Phil walked towards Techno smiling, the other keeping a calm stance.

“Let’s have fun, okay?” He said, and when everybody was at a safe distance, both men set themselves in starting poses. “Wilbur, you give the signal!” Phil said giving him a quick glance”

“On the count to three” He moved his left foot a bit.

“One” Gripping the sword a bit harder.

“Two” He calmed his breath.

“Three!”

Phil almost didn’t move fast enough to block, the pink haired man in an instance closing the distance and going for his shoulder, which gained a surprised gasp from the audience. As soon as the two swords met, he swiftly moved it back and aimed at Phil’s leg, forcing him to block in fear of getting knocked down. Techno speed up the pace, and Phil was having trouble keeping up. Not only was the man fast but he was strong as well, each slash being harder than the last one.

It wasn’t a surprise when a few minutes after starting, Phil had fallen to the ground and Techno had his sword aimed at the throat, Tommy and Tubbo in shocked silence, and the taller brunette starting to get sweat in his hands.

Both fighters stared at each other, and with a small audible breath, Techno offered Phil a hand up.

If Phil wasn’t convinced before, now he really thought they needed to watch over the man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to apologize in advance that it might occur that next chapter will be late due to university stuff- But I am announcing that there's gonna be a change of characters, just to introduce the other stuff that's happening parallel to the whole shenenigan here' . So either chapter 6 &7 or 6 alone are gooing to be for the new characters and then back to the sleepybois after a short time skip, just to skip stuff that's not interesting LOL.


	6. The tavern at the end of the road

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jschlatt sometimes hates his job, a certain team starts to move and a pink haired dude won't go to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It won't let me add my sleep deprivation as a co-creator, truly a flaw in the system.

The capital was a place with opportunities to grow at every corner, with most masters in the crafts regularly visiting to get new apprentices and the market being always full of people. The tall walls that surrounded the city were a constant reminder that this was a safe place, and most people agreed that what should worry you was not what was outside but inside the walls.

Even though Jschlatt had enough coin in his pocket alone that he could spare some to the multiple thief’s that roamed around the back alley in the south wall, he was not even considered a target. People didn’t even spare him a glance, knowing that the man might not have horns, but a devil gave them a better chance than him. He just walked around the dark alley, passing the boxes in which eyes adverted their gaze and cod hands desperately tried to gather warmth.

He was tired, it was late at night and he would rather be anywhere than in some dirty street where rats and the most unholy of smells made their own kingdom. But he had a mission assigned and he couldn’t refuse it.

After some turns and being careful to not step on what he guessed were puddles of _water_ and not some other _liquid,_ he reached a poorly lit sign next to a door at the end of an alleyway, and could hear the screams and laughs coming from inside.

_“Manhunt; todays menu: pork and potatoes”_

He wished the smell wouldn’t be as bad.

As soon as he opened the door, a glass was shattered against the wall less than a meter away rom his head and he flinched, but luckily the glass didn’t reach him. He glanced inside, it had been one of the many drunk man sitting down in the round tables the one that has thrown it, probably after losing a bet or something. He looked at the waitress give their fakest smiles to the men and let them drop when they turned around. There was loud music from a bard in the stage, but he had seen a better one already and the pair sat down at the bar was what really caught his attention.

He approached them with a smile, but the guys in his way noticed that it didn’t reach his eyes. The two at the stools were too absorbed in conversation and jokes to notice him, so they just continued in ignorance.

-They were so scared! And they thought I was going to burn them, too. – Said the black haired one, who had a bandana around his head and a huge grin in his face – I think I did even more stuff than you this time, I’m going to steal your number one spot! – the other man just laughed with him, clearly they both were in a goofy mood and like to banter.

“Can you defeat masky over here, then?”

Both the bandana guy and his masked friend looked at jschlatt, the first one surprised and the second unreadable under the whole face cover. Jschlatt just smiled while putting his hand on their shoulders and adding a bit of pressure to the mix.

“In fact, why don’t we discuss this together over there?” he signaled a lonely table at the corner of the room “Bet we can make it interesting” he let go of them, and started walking to their destination, not even looking back at the two guys who gave a glance at each other and followed soon.

Sitting down, he ordered the three of them beers while the duo got set. They waited for the waitress to go away before talking.

“What business do you have?” The green hooded man asked. They couldn’t see his face, but the tone was one of displeasure.

“Can’t I come to see how the champion’s doing?” Jschlatt started, gesturing to the other. “Been a while since anybody saw you uptown, they have been missing their summer idol” he gave a short laugh.

“The tournament isn’t until summer and we are barely starting spring” he cut the chase short “And you never come here for _just talk_ ”

“Better say what coin got you eye, man” the one in white said. He crossed his arms and looked at the suited man waiting.

“Why so aggressive? Am I not the one who gives you such _wonderful_ job offers, Dream?”

“If by that you mean the dirty work you don’t want to do yourself, then sure” He wasn’t sparing a moment with him, Dream knew what type of stuff the other man searched him for, and it was never pretty or simple. But he wouldn’t admit out loud that the pay and the thrill of adventure something he looked forward to. 

“Since you are _so_ eager, you might want to listen closely” jschlatt saw the waitress come with their drinks, and after gulping a big part of his drink, he rested his head on his hand, looking bored. “The monsters have been all over the place, haven’t them?” they listened with interest “Demons and what not, they have been a pain in the ass, really” resting his head in his hand, he drank again. “Even I had to give some coin to keep the security steady, and they have been messing up the trade. You must understand I’m not really happy with that, right Dream? Sapnap?”

“You want us to help with your trade?” Asked sapnap, unsure of where the conversation was headed to. Dream was silent, waiting for the bomb to drop.

“No, not really. For once I’m not here for myself-” that piqued their interest “But because of bigger orders. Bigger fish than me want to offer you the adventure of a lifetime” they waited, expectantly. “You see, about three weeks ago miss Nihachu made a prophecy, and now all those fancy guys in the castle want something done to make sure it doesn’t come true”

“What type of prophecy was?” Dream asked covering the nervousness of his voice.

“That someone- _something_ will cause the kingdom to fall by the end of fall, and that whatever it is, it started a week after the sky’s told her that”

Sapnap looked at him searching for a hint of a joke, but a pit was forming in his stomach already. He glanced at Dream, but he was just as much if not more nervous. This was sounding not like the common quest they were asked for but a much bigger deal. And considering that this had to do with the crown, they felt they wouldn’t be able to refuse it.

“So your job, if you haven’t figured it out, is to gather your tracking team with that muffin-obsessed mage and the glasses guy and well, track this shit down.” He looked at them without a hint of a smile this time, looking intimidating as he set the empty beer jar down. “This is not something you can fail, and I think you understand that it’s not just an empty wallet on the line”

They were silent, Dream looking down at the table. He was glad the man couldn’t see his face. He knew what that meant, they didn’t know the danger level of this. They were probably forcing them since they did have a reputation of being able to solve difficult missions better than anyone else, and this seemed like a case of going all out. Not without reason he felt that some information was being left out, but he wouldn’t ask now.

“How long do we have?” he asked.

“Glad you ask!” Jschlatt said smiling while standing up. He was followed by the pair’s eyes as he went around and patted Dream in the back “3 days to start, in two I’ll help you supply. We want to solve this as quick as possible, understood?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “See you later, thank you for your cooperation” he went ahead and walked out the tavern after waving a goodbye.

The pair just looked at each other feeling already tired at the task in hand.

They had to make some calls.

BadBoyHalo, Or Bad for short, did not make his name justice.

He was a very good mage, a very good friend and a very good person. The name has stuck but everybody could recognize the irony in it and often joked about it with him, it was a good conversation topic when the other ran dry. The other topics that people brought up to him on the regular was either something about the bakery stock on muffins or whatever shenanigans his friends wanted to hop into.

Today was looking out to be a calm and dough filled, and he was in the mood to make some special muffins with maybe flower decorations, considering that the spring celebration would come and that meant clients looking for special gifts. He wouldn’t tell a soul, but while he was skilled at magic, he preferred to use it to keep the oven at the best temperature and to clean the kitchen more easily.

And that’s what Dream found him doing when he came though the back door.

“Oh, hi dream!” He cheered, waving at his friend and leaving the mop to the side. “What brings you here?” He had already an idea of what it was, but he gave him the benefit of the doubt.

“Bad, do you know any strong navigation spells?” he was taking out his gloves and stared at Dream in confusion “Not for humans?”

“Where is this going, Dream?” he set the gloved down in the table and looked at him worried. “What do you mean, not human?”

“We have a mission” The masked man started, passing a hand by his hair “And we need you to track down a demon”

Miles away, a Pink haired man was picking up some glowing mushrooms under the moonlight, a tall man close by looking around. Philza had come with Techno in a quest for some ingredients for the baker and was keeping watch for any wild animal that might roam around.

In all honesty, he and Wilbur had been taking turns in watching the man, Phil taking any that was quest related to exploration, since the deeper you went to the woods the more dangerous creatures got. It was a good thing that _Brick_ seemed always so bad with directions that he didn’t refuse the help, but from what Phil could see that was the main and only problem the other man had.

If anything, he was starting to get scared with the amount work he was putting in.

The first days they thought that maybe he would do at most three quests per week, enough to stay at the inn he was currently at and pay for food with money to spare. If he played the cards rights, he would have to stay enough time in town for them to have a verdict, and because he didn’t seem in a hurry, they felt things would go well.

They were wrong.

This pink haired man had been doing consistently around 3 quests _per_ day. People had been putting up more seeing how fast they were going, and Phil couldn’t keep up. Wilbur helped when Phil couldn’t follow the man, but both had run short of time and suddenly the weeks they had calculated had been turned into at most the end of this one. They were sure the dude already had enough to not only leave, but probably even skip a town.

Phil keep thinking that if the dude wasn’t a demon, he had at least some mixed-race blood in him. While this country didn’t have many mixes, some of the adjacent nations did but even there it was rare. After all, most magic folk didn’t mix with humans even if they were as if not more intelligent than them.

But the proof just wasn’t there. All they knew was that he was restless, appeared out of nowhere and to this day hadn’t actually answered any questions relating to his home, and lastly that he was great at fighting with a strength that gave him the supernatural status.

He had accompanied to some wolves hunting missions, but soon realized he wasn’t needed. Even with the normal sword provided by the quest manager, the guy hadn’t had a problem getting rid of them. If hitting one to death before passing out wasn’t enough, seeing him fight in a healthier state was an amazing sight to behold. The ferocity and confident blows contrasted with his personality, which Phil has come to find was of a very anxious guy. He didn’t talk a lot and often seemed like the mere interaction was enough to make him confused and look not like a guy who was completing every single quest shoved his way.

Phil didn’t know how thankful Techno was of every time the blond man would join the quest and do all the talking.

“We have enough” Brick grabbed Phil’s attention “With this amount, I think the baker will be satisfied.” He finished putting the mushrooms in a bag he had at his waist, a recent purchase. He was wearing better clothes, having bought them after saving a bit of his now constant salary. There were simple and offered little to not protection, but Phil guessed that if he’s not getting hit, he doesn’t really need fancy armor.

“Time to go back then?” after a nod, they both started walking towards the exit of the forest. They were in comfortable silence, every now and then looking around for any suspicious shadow or sound.

Lucky for them, they reached the town without problem.

Phil tried striking conversation while they walked towards the quest center, and Brick seemed to enjoy it even if he didn’t talk to much. It was in moment like these that Phil felt the man beside him was just that, a guy who just had a weird circumstance.

They hadn’t even crossed the door when a woman approached techno, desperately pleading.

“ _PLEASE HELP ME!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the delay! I've had a week full of work, straight up have been sleeping like 5 hour max each day LOL, but now things shoooould calm down. Tried my best to deliver <3 Hope you guys enjoy it!


	7. A cavern full of light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno finds a light at the end of a cavern.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo! I updated early this time! Cause i had time and went bonkers!

“Miss Dorothy, please let go of him!”

The girl in charge of managing the desk in the quest was pulling on the black-haired woman, who was weeping and trying to get close to Techno again. Phil looked at _Brick_ noticing how tensed up he was after being screamed at and set a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.

“You don’t understand! They have my child!” she fell to her knees as her tears soaked the floor “They took him to the forest! My boy has been taken!” she was pleading looking down, her voice cracking.

“Miss, please calm down!” The poor girl was trying to lead the woman to a chair, but she was in so much distress she wouldn’t stand up. “We just want to help you!”

 _Brick_ looked pleading at Philza, who nodded and crouched in front of the woman.

“Miss” He called her attention. “Would you explain to us _how_ to help you?” She looked at him with tears still falling from her face.

“I woke up to a strong sound, and my child, my poor Tim, I saw him getting taken!” She sobbed harder at that and continued “A hooded figure was leading him! He wouldn’t listen to me! I went outside as fast as I could, but my boy was not there anymore! I don’t know WHERE! I NEED MY SON!” she finished, tears filling her face again. 

“Do you know where she lives?” _Brick_ asked the guild girl, who got a little spooked at the seriousness in his face.

“Miss Dorothy lives by the tavern, it’s the house to the left-”

“Let’s go.” Phil hadn’t even stood up by the time Techno had already left the place. He went outside and saw the pink hair man running towards the tavern, and soon Phil himself was sprinting to it. It took them a few minutes to reach the place, where _Brick_ went straight to the back around the house.

Phil found him crouched on the grass, looking for something. He approached as the man stood up and looked at him.

“There’s a bit of red powder here, and it reeks of fae” He looked at the dust in his hand with disgust. “It could be a Caster or a Hungry Nymph, but to be so direct it has to be the first”

“A Caster? As in the demon class?” Phil asked, and _Brick_ nodded. “That’s… they are not supposed to reach this area. Aren’t they more north?”

“They are? They kind of just teleport around, don’t they?” Techno was confused. When he was a knight, they were scarce but the ones that did appear weren’t bound to a place, considering they formed when a lower-class demon ate enough living beings, and those were all over the place.

“Do they? All I heard was that only north demons could turn into one, and even that is rare” Phil said, looking closer to the dust, confirming the fae smell. “Demons weren’t a problem until recently, and to think some have gotten this strong…”

“They aren’t dumb creatures. They know how to learn, if given time”

“How do you know so much about them?” _Brick_ seemed taken back by the question. He avoided Phil’s eyes, looking around the ground instead.

“I just have some experience” was his answer. Phil wanted to pry some more answers, but _Brick_ seemed to notice something near the trees and ran towards it. Phil went to look too and glanced over _Brick’s_ shoulder, just to step back.

It was blood.

“Phil, we need to track this Caster right now” _Brick_ looked back at him, concerned “Do you know if there’s any cave near here? Any big tree?”

Phil desperately searched his thoughts for an answer. The more seconds passed the more the tension raised, Techno running the option of trying to find another track through his mind.

“There’s the spider cave” Phil realized. “It’s just full of those big ones, but they say it goes deeper and that a queen is at the bottom” The horror at the implications settled on them, and Phil started running towards the cave with _Brick_ following close behind.

“They have to be there” _Brick_ said between breaths “Casters aren’t that good alone, they use minions and other creatures to protect the places they live in” They speed up the pace, running through the forest that was quickly becoming thicker and thicker. They refused to be slowed down by the increasingly harder path to navigate, and just kept pushing through the branches and avoided the roots that popped out of the ground.

They were almost out of breath when they reached the lower part of a cliff, where an entrance to a cave was carved into the rock. It was dark enough that they couldn’t see past a meter in, and Techno realized that for Phil it must not even be that. He was impressed that the mand hadn’t fallen, considering the world must be pitch black for him.

But he couldn’t drag him inside and see.

“Phil, this is the place, right?” He regained his breath and stood up grabbing his sword from the scabbard at his hips.

“Yeah, this is the one. I’m sure of it, had to come here to check once.” He was getting ready, when he noticed the other man just staring at him. “What?”

“You should go back” before Phil could look surprised, he continued “This place seems dangerous enough and you don’t have a light. I just needed you to show me where, but now I’ll handle it alone.”

“You are kidding me, right?” He couldn’t believe the words he was hearing, but he wasn’t sensing any humor from the pinknette. “Do you have a death wish? Besides, you also don’t have a light! We should try and catch a spirit to use as one-”

“Phil, Tommy and Tubbo are waiting for you to come home.” That stopped him in his tracks. “Wilbur must be waiting too. Let me take care of this” He wasn’t asking; he was demanding it. But Phil was not going to send a guy to his death.

“And someone must be waiting for you too!” Only silence followed. Phil gulped. “Listen, dude, I don’t doubt your ability’s…”

“Then go. You don’t need to worry about me” _Brick_ was being stubborn, and it was pissing off Phil a bit.

“I just, What’s your deal?” That got the other nervous. “I’m trying to take a safer option for you and yet here you are refusing any help.”

“I just don’t see why-”

“Why what? Why I would go? Listen dude, you might have technique and strength, but some things are just too much for anyone.” He stared at the silent man who once again wouldn’t looks at his eyes. “It’s too much for any man. And you are a man, right?”

“…” Techno couldn’t say a word. He knew Phil was trying to be a good person, but he was also someone who he didn’t want to put in risk. He had to admit the man had grown on him, being a comfort in this new environment. In all honesty, he had already collected enough money to move on, but he just wanted to spend some more time with everyone.

Phil grew worried at the lack of answer, and Techno didn’t feel like lying anymore. He knew that he was already past the suspicious line, and he felt the look the other was giving him.

“You are… not a man, are you?” That line hurt him, because he didn’t know for sure the answer. He finally looked at Phil in the eyes.

“If I say no, would you let me go alone?” Phil gasped. “We can’t waste more time. I’ll go inside that cave, and…” he considered for a moment “…I’ll answer whatever question you have when I come out” he started walking inside.

“Brick! Wait, what do you mean!?” Phil watched as the man walked into the darkness and cursed under his breath as he had no light to help him follow the other. He searched around desperately looking for a way to make light. He was growing worried and confused at each passing minute, a million questions running through his head. Was Wilbur right? Why would Brick protect him? If he was a Demon playing games, why hadn’t he allowed Phil to follow, and then murdered inside where nobody would watch?

He was almost distracted enough to not notice the passing blue light to his left.

A spirit.

Techno was going deeper and deeper into the cave, killing the spiders that crawled out of the cracks at the sides. The stalagmites that blocked his way were crumbled by his hands, and while he hated the fact that he had the strength, he couldn’t deny its usefulness.

He felt bad for leaving Phil behind, but he was also worried about the fact he promised to answer questions he might not have an answer to. He didn’t know if he was a demon for sure, yet in every quest to hunt a monster he felt himself getting more and more vicious with the killing. He worried Phil had noticed that in the last missions, and Techno wouldn’t dare blame the guy for it. It was worrying for him too.

Even now, killing the spiders made him want to drink the blood that gushed out.

He didn’t know if it had started with the wolf, or if it was always there, the thirst for the liquid. He had been having problems recently keeping himself in check, sometimes having weird thoughts about killing everything in his sight, even the people. It seemed to increase whenever he fought stuff, and that’s why he had been going on mostly recollection quests. He was worried about it taking over, that maybe one day those thoughts would be all the stuff he could think of. He needed to reach Keralis tower soon, but he enjoyed the good moments with Phil and his family a bit too much. He guessed after this he wouldn’t have those anymore.

Shaking his head after murdering a duo of decently sized spiders, he decided to think about it later. He clearly needed to finish the delayed task at hand first.

He walked into the darkness, noticing how there was another opening in his path. He approached and was shocked at what he saw.

It was a bigger part of the cave, with shining stones adorning the walls. It was enough light to see everything close to the floor but looking up was an endless darkness, leaving him confused as to why he couldn’t see in it. He looked around but the space seemed empty aside from some weird glowing flowers and vines that descended from the top, and a few water puddles around. It seemed awfully suspicious that a space as big as this one was left empty, so he walked slowly towards the other side of the place.

He felt a water drop on his shoulder.

He tried to move as fast as possible, but even then, he got scratched by the monster that dropped from the ceiling. He didn’t notice his arm bleeding a dark substance because he was looking at what _exactly_ had dropped.

Reaching three meters in height, and with eight legs in the torso, one would assume it was a spider. But where the head should have been, a torso connected. He had heard the stories of half spider half human monsters, but he had always though the human half looked friendly and welcoming, as to lure prey in.

This didn’t look like that.

The “human” part was resembling a skeleton, with the ribs pronounced and the stomach part tore open in a mouth with rows and rows of teeth. The arms were lanky and ended not in hands, they had long claws, two big and one small as a thumb of sorts. But it was the head what horrified him.

It was a long neck with bubbles of skin along it, and it ended in a jaw that was cut open a bit too much. Sharp fangs resided there, and the lack of eyes or eye sockets gave the bald head an even scarier look. Two wholes were in each side, and he could see when the creature lowered itself that it’s back was covered in fur.

It didn’t seem to want to move, rather waiting like him for the other to do it. He slowly moved to the side, but his sword accidently hit a stone which lighted up even more with a noise that alerted the monster, that moved surprisingly quickly for its size.

Techno got in stance and slashed the claw that was reaching for him, which made the creature step back in surprise. To his horror, the creature didn’t seem hurt by it, and he noticed there wasn’t blood on the injury.

In fact, the creature seemed to not be in any pain.

He went to slash it again, but it moved quickly up the wall, and he realized that what he thought it was darkness above him was in fact black string, which explained why he couldn’t see. He could now notice that it was moving, but it was getting confusing and he wasn’t sure where the monster was anymore. He stood there, trying to decipher where it was, when the full weight of it fell on him.

He fell from the impact and was quickly grabbed by the front legs at his shoulders. He struggled to move as he saw the face of the monster lower down, and It took all his strength to free his arms in time to use his sword to block the bite it was trying to give him. He tried to divert the blow to his side, but the claw he hadn’t damaged was now trying to grab him to pull him closer, which forced him to block it too while trying to move out.

He didn’t see the smaller spiders crawling down the sides till they were almost on the floor, approaching him from every angle. He felt fear, but he also felt a stronger emotion rise from him.

To kill everything, to save himself by destroying it all. He felt the lust for blood boil inside him, and he was almost losing himself to that desperate hope that he could throw away everything just live another day.

“BRICK!” the yell from Phil snapped him out of those thoughts, and he looked back surprised to see the blond man being followed by a blue light and already fighting the spiders that crawled down. He was relieved, and his mind got clearer. He couldn’t die here, after being given another chance.

He pushed away the monster with all his strength and used the moment to stand up and ready himself.

“KEEP DOING THAT, I’LL KILL THE BIG ONE!” He yelled at the blond, who spared him a glance and continued to slash the spiders that came at him.

Techno dodged the blows, now focused only on the big monster in front of him. He slashed the front legs but realized that it wouldn’t be enough. The thing was still moving without pain, and he knew that he would need to cut the whole thing to stop it from moving. He ran around it, trying to trick it into turning so he could stop and stab the legs. It worked the first time, chopping the second of its right legs, which made it angrier and charge.

But It was getting slower.

He could feel the excitement at this new winning hand get to his head, and he moved faster and closer. After cutting a second and third leg he didn’t care about how close the mouth and claws were, he could cut them up too. He could cut it all up, make it crawl in the ground and scream in agony.

The spider wasn’t moving anymore, but Techno kept stabbing.

Phil finished the smaller spiders and stared in concern. _Brick’_ s eyes were red, and he was staring at the monster whose corpse he was stabbing with a dead glance. He suddenly stopped, and just stood there.

“ _Brick?”_ Phil started, but got no response. He noticed a noise by the side of the room contrary to the entrance, but nothing came from it. “ _Brick,_ I’m going to go see what’s there. You are coming?” No response. “I’ll… be back”

He walked around the other man and went into the other place. His spirit friends lighted up the place, showing him a sleeping kid in the floor of what seemed to be a room resembling a prison.   
He quickly approached the child, noticing it was breathing. He sighted in relief and looked around the room, but there was no sign of a caster anywhere. If there ever was one, they had already left.

He took the kid in his arms and carried it outside, noticing how the other hadn’t moved.

“ _Brick_ , I have the kid, he’s fine just sleeping” he said. “We have to bring him back”

The pink haired man turned around, and Phil felt fear crawl his spine. His eyes were still red, but this time they were looking straight at him. And then _Brick_ smiled and started approaching with sword in hand.

He took a step back. “ _Brick_ , what are you doing?” He couldn’t hide the fear in his voice. “Could you put the sword away?” he was moving back, towards the wall. The other man didn’t seem to hear him. “ _Brick?”_ The sword was raised, and panic filled him “ _PLEASE, STOP!”_

That seemed to snap the other, his eyes turning blue and a look of confusion setting in his face. He looked at the sword in his hand and the man in front of him, quickly dropping the weapons and moving back while moving his hands to his mouth. He looked down and started breathing heavily.

“ _Brick?”_ Phil called out, but the other one seemed to not hear him, and fell to his knees while hyperventilating. Phil gulped, but set the child in his arms down for a moment and slowly approached the guy in front.

“ _Brick,_ I… I need you to look at me.” He got closer and kneeled in front of him. “Just, breath with me? Okay? Like this” He took the guys hands on his own and started counting.

Ten, nine, eight, he seemed to finally hear him.

Seven, six, five, he was trying to follow him.

Four, three, he could feel his breath get steadier.

Two, one. He was calming down. They repeated the numbers until the other wasn’t in shock anymore and was available to think again.

“I’m…” Started _Brick_ “…I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t mean to-” He was going to hyperventilate again, so Phil reassured him by the hand. “I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t think and…”

“Shh, it’s okay. It’s okay…”

“But it’s not! I could of-!” Phil hugged him, which quieted him down immediately.

“Listen… I can’t say for sure that I get what’s happening.” He wasn’t sure of anything, really. “…in fact, I AM scared. But I don’t think even you know, either. And right now, I see the anxiety filled guy who likes when I lead conversations, I see that guy in you and well, there’s stuff to sort out, but that’s for later, okay?” The pinknette nodded, and Phil let go. He went to grab the child in his arms again, while the other stood up.

“Why did you come?” Techno asked the man.

“Mm, leaving a guy to die isn’t my style. And well, I need you alive to fulfill your promise, don’t I?” He smiled back, a reassuring smile. He still had his doubts, but the panic in the others face had showed him that he needed more help than anything. He moved to the exit “Let’s go, Brick”

“It’s techno”

“Huh?” Phil looked back at him, confused.

“My name- It’s not Brick. It’s Techno. I thought I should tell you.” He looked at Phil’s eyes worried.

“Well Techno, let’s get out of here, okay?”

Techno sighed with relief and followed the other man.

Maybe things were going to be okay after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, I'm probably never going to be able to update this early again, so take this as a once-time thingy lol!


	8. Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the revelations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyy! Back in schedule :')  
> also i have a drawing for one of the fic scenes, sharing it cause maybe someone likes that?  
> (it's the spider monster one, so if u don't like spiders, TW)  
> https://imgur.com/yApUoge
> 
> also adding the reference of the sb here, since someone asked for it :)  
> https://imgur.com/a/0QGioNk

Somewhere in a cave, a low red light could be seen. The source wasn’t recognizable from a distance, but the closer one got the more the features started to shape. It showed two antlers in its skull like head, but it wasn’t a deer. It was far from it.

It moved with its four legs never touching the ground, and if it wasn’t for the black, sickly looking skin, one would think it could be a mythical centaur. But the canine teeth in its mouth and the glowing orb it had for an eye would scare away even the rats that roamed the floor, and so one would either hear the bones creaking or the jaw unclench as signal of danger.

As for himself, it did not care about appearances.

He kept going deeper, walking towards his destiny for the night. He had great news for the king and couldn’t hold back the giggles in his throat, so the cockroaches hurried away from the painful sound.

Arriving at the door, he hushed himself to silence, not wanting to look as if his task was being taken as a joke. Not knocking the door, he opened it and moved inside.

The pressure felt from the gaze it gave him was overbearing to say the least. Bowing down, he dared not to speak for he could feel it any other words than those asked for would cost him the tongue.

**“ _What news do you bring to me, Caster?”_**

“ _It went well, my master”_ he wasn’t sure if he was speaking because he wanted to, but it did not matter. “Given the bait, _I checked and he’s awake. The spider experiment proved unsuccessful , as it was merely a moving corpse rather a living being- but the knight seems to not only be alive, but even have a conscious of his own”_

There was not an answer, but rather he felt as if he had to said something else. He hurried his own thoughts for anything useful and decided to throw his own theory into the mix.

“ _He seems to lose control. While he’s part demon, we thought he would stay, mind-wise, just like he was before. But it seems that the instincts are stronger than we thought.”_ He felt a little lighter but dared not to assume he had fulfilled his duty.

**_“Interesting._ Very _, Very interesting. You shall keep distance but inform me of any other developments.”_**

The caster bowed down even more, before hurrying up to the exit. Once it was gone, the thing busted into laughter, moving its teeth and limbs as if to mimic a smile.

**_“Soon… Soon I’ll have it all”_ **

He was waiting patiently.

They had gone back to the village where the mother thanked them profusely, hugging her confused but now awake child who looked confused as to where he was. Philza was giving the details to the Quest girl, who scribbled down everything as fast as she could. She was probably going to have a lot of paperwork after this.

But Techno was worried about something else.

He had finally done it- he had not only told but shown Philza his current reality and had to now wait for the results. Phil’ had said that they would discuss it later, but the “later” was coming and Techno felt like he wouldn’t mind time stopping for a bit. He was worried about how he was going to tell the tale, and what happens after it. Would he be thrown out? He was starting to think all the understanding Phil showed was because at the moment he was scared, but now he wasn’t and there were too many people around-

He looked at the man who was finishing up cleaning the report with the girl and saw him give a tiny reassuring smile before continuing.

Techno felt a little bit calmer.

It wasn’t till half an hour later that the Quest girl allowed them to leave, mentioning how a reward would be available tomorrow for the task. Phil had tried convincing her that given the circumstances it wasn’t necessary, but she had insisted so they just accepted picking it up in the afternoon.

They were walking the path to Philza’s house, talking about random stuff as if to avoid the main topic that Techno was sure was coming. Currently the topic was the variety of vegetables the garden had, and how long was till the next harvest of those. It was easy to follow the topic, and Techno was glad that Phil seemed to understand that in the moment, the anticipation was killing him with anxiety.

Philza came to a stop just by the entrance to his yard and turned around to Techno who had been trailing a bit behind.

“So” He seemed to take a moment to word his thoughts. “Before we go in, do you want to explain to me first, or wait until Wilbur is with us?”

He gave it some thought, the blond man not making a sign of hurry. “I think I would rather not explain twice, but…” he fidgeted with his hands “I just, Wilbur is already suspicious of me, isn’t he?” Phil seemed surprise at that. “It’s not that I don’t trust you guys, if anything I do so more than anybody else. But I’m just… worried” he finished, not knowing if the words would convey the message.

“I mean” Phil set his hand on his neck and scratched nervously. “It’s not that he doesn’t trust specifically, he’s just… he doesn’t have good experiences with some things, and not knowing about you set him in edge.” He let his hand fall from his neck to Techno’s shoulder. “But I’ll be there, for either of you who might need a hand.”

“What if I can’t answer?” Techno said softly. He lowered his gaze to the ground, and Phil gave him a squeeze to bring his attention back up.

“Then a second opinion might help!” Giving him a smile, he waited but the other one to look calmer before turning and going to the house.

Phil had expected for everyone to be sleep, so he could wake up just Wilbur and discuss about the new things. What he didn’t expect was Wilbur sitting down in the couch, turning to him and standing up hurrying over them.

“Phil, where the fuck were you? You took hours!” He was going to grab the others cape but saw the blood on their clothes, noticing there was _two_ persons instead of one. “and why are you here? Why do you _both_ have blood on your clothes?” He looked two steps from a panic attack.

They had honestly forgotten about the state of their clothes after the smaller spiders, and Techno suddenly felt way better about the big one not bleeding. It would have been a nightmare to get out all of that. Phil on the other hand just set his hand on Wilbur’s back and pushed him gently.

“Let’s sit so we can tell you”

And so, they did. Phil and Wilbur were sitting on the couch, and Techno was in front in a chair he pulled from the table. As Phil started talking about how they had encountered the mother and about the cave, Techno listened noticing the skipped parts.

“A fucking massive one?” Wilbur was firmly grasping the side of the couch, knuckles white. “How the fuck did you kill that?! WHY would you both go alone?” Phil shushed him to lower his voice, worried the kids might wake up. Wilbur took some deep breaths, but the worry never left his face.

“Is that all?” He said, looking at them. Phil gave a questioning glance to Techno, who gave him a tiny nod. It was now.

“No” The pink man started. Phil set cautiously a hand in Wilbur’s, confusing him. “There’s something else we need to talk- or rather, that I have to tell you guys”

Wilbur turned from one man to the other, this time squishing Phil’s hand back.

Techno took a deep breath. “I know that I haven’t been… completely clear on myself. If anything, It’s the opposite. But there’s some things even I don’t understand, and I’m just- I’m going to _try_ and answer all the questions you might have.” He lowered his head a bit, which were not for the context would have looked a bit funny.

Phil took the initiative “So, let’s start from the basics, Techno. What exactly are you?” Wibur looked at Phil weird, and then to the pinknette. “Techno?” he asked.

Grabbing his knees, he started. “That’s my _actual_ name. Brick was a fake one, if it wasn’t clear by now. And as for Phil’s question, I’m… not sure” he could feel Wilburs questioning glare and Philza’s confused but supporting one. “As far as I know, I _shouldn’t_ be alive.”

“What?” Wilbur audibly gasped at that. Phil was surprised, too.

“I’m fairly certain I _died_ a very long time ago. Last time I had checked, Xisuma was still king and a young one at that” he chuckled a bit, but soon his face went back to a nostalgic expression. “Keralis was alive, too. As far as I can tell, it seems it’s been at least a good 70 years since she assumed the throne, and I was well dead before that. I used to be knight for them- but well, that got me killed in the spot in which I woke up”

“But, how?” the brunette seemed to be even more confused than before.

“How are you, well, back?” Phil said, theory’s running wild in his head.

“When I was dying, I could feel my soul leaving. But it got pulled back. I would-” he didn’t like remembering the creature, the mere thought making him want to puke. “I would rather _not_ say what pulled me back, but it wasn’t human like at all” he hugged himself a little. “I don’t know why me, or why it did it at all. I’m not sure if I could be considered a demon-” Wilbur grabbed Phil with a little too much force making him wince. “But when I woke up, I looked like how you found me, and I didn’t have anything from before.”

It took them a moment to digest the information, and techno hoped it would suffice.

“That’s… a lot to take in” Phil admitted, looking down a bit. “I’m not sure how to… well, process this.” He looked at Wilbur, who set his hand on his face and threw himself back to the couch with a loud growl.

“Wilbur-”

“I hate this, Phil. I hate it.” Techno felt the anxiety pilling up inside. “I was so ready for this guy to come out as a bloody monster and just make it easier for us to throw him in the fire!” Phil gasped at that, and techno paled a bit. “But he’s not! He’s not!!” taking his hands from his face, he sat straight and looked at Techno. “I’ll be honest, _Techno,_ were it not for the fact that we have known you for a while, I would have called bullshit on all this. But right now, it just makes sense with all the stupid shit you do.”

“Wilbur! Don’t be so mean!” Phil said. “But I do have to agree. It’s kind of makes sense.”

Techno felt like he could cry, they believed him-

“But like, did you get cool powers or something then?” Wilburs started “Cause sorry for being _bold-_ but you haven shown a rather concerning amount of strength. I guess the sword skills make sense if you were a knight but-”

Wilbur rambled and Techno realized he left the hardest topic for last. He didn’t know how to tackle the subject, of everything _new_ with his body. The super strength, the night vision- those were just supernatural powers that weren’t a problem. But the thirst for blood was something he didn’t know how to mention, and since Phil had seen him, it wasn’t something he could avoid.

“Is… _that_ , new as well?” Phil asked, interrupting Wilbur who gave him a confused glance.

“What’s _that_?” He asked to Techno.

Better than never he guessed. “While I did gain some rather interesting quirks, like the strength and night vision-” Phil seemed to connect the dots at that. “I did also gain some rather… evil ones.” They waited for him to continue. “Phil, what you saw was me losing control over those. If I had to describe it, it’s the one thing that makes me think I might become, if I’m not already a Demon. I just- lose control with violence, and I would be lying if I were to downplay it as mere thoughts.”

There, he had said it, and now it came the real test: would he be thrown out? Would they understand him? If so, how? But for Techno, there was an answer for both. He had decided the best course in each scenario, and it led him the same way.

“Well that’s concerning to say the least!” Wilbur seemed to gain all his panic back, and Philza tried to calm him down to no avail. The brunette stood up “So you aren’t a bloodthirsty demon _yet!_ Great! Fine! Everything is awesome! We just have to wait till you kill us then!”

“Wilbur, you need to calm down-”

“If it helps, I’m working on that.” Both looked at Techno waiting for him to continue. “I have already enough money to move out, and I can just get the permission on the way. I wanted to go to my hometown- Skytown, but visiting Keralis tower is more important now”

“And why would _that_ be?” Wilbur inquired.

“Because if any place hold information on resurrecting people, is that one. I’m going to travel there, find if there’s a way to get rid of this curse” He stated, trying to sound as confident as he could be.

“And what if there’s no cure?”

Techno knew the answer already.

“Then I’ll kill myself before I hurt anybody.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ADDIN NOTE HERE!! I'm sorry i tried to make it (current date 25th of November 2020) but i couldn't write a chapter between work, so there's no update on that date! I don't think i won't have one for next week, but just in case you could consider this in hiatus. Worst case if i can't keep working on this i will drop the timeline and how stuff was supposed to go, so at least i can give some clousure to the people who always comment :(c I'm really sorry, life getting' harder it seems.


	9. Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A really long talk before the road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry for not updating... I was being grilled by University work. I'll try update more now, to make up for the lost time. 
> 
> Side note,,, i almost forgot my password to ao3 and was like screaming at 2am LMAO-
> 
> ALSO I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HITS WERE BUT THERE'S A LOT AND THANK YOU??? AND 172 KUDOS THANK YOU SO MUCH????

“Then I’ll kill myself before I hurt anybody.” 

Wilbur paled at the words and felt all his anger and panic leave. He didn’t dare look to Phil’s face; He knew that while both had gotten closer to the other man, it was the blond who hadn’t been stopped by fear from considering the other a friend. His silence was worrying, to say the least.

Techno saw Wilbur visible deflate at his words and avoided Phil’s gaze for he wouldn’t be able to handle it. He liked to think that he had gotten closer to the two of them in the two weeks since meeting them, but that also meant that his words were not for strangers; but for people close to friends.

He had decided his path the moment he had raised his sword to Phil; It had been a warning. He thought that if he ignored everything, he could find a secluded place to live in, and avoid all conflict. But the incident with Phil showed him that he couldn’t procrastinate until he lost himself.

“I don’t agree with that.” Phil said. His eyes betrayed the feeling of anger inside, but he was trying his best to calm himself. He knew why the choice was made, but he couldn’t help and feel like it was giving up too soon. “But it’s your choice- even if it’s a dumb one”.

“It’s for the best” Phil looked ready to argue, so he continued. “Phil, I almost murdered you. I almost went and lost it right there” The blonds eyes softened at the words, while next to him Wilbur looked ready to murder Techno.

“Excuse me- _You almost did WHAT?_ – Phil was going to calm Wilbur, but the brunette reached Techno first, grabbing the front of the others shirt and pulling him closer. “FORGET THE PITTY! I DON’T CARE ABOUT WHATEVER HAPPENED TO YOU, IF YOU HURT-” Phil pulled him away and grabbed Wilbur by the shoulders.

“Wilbur, _Sit down_ ” He was so serious, and his voice didn’t leave any place for discussion, but Wilbur was just too angry to calm down.

“He is a MENACE! Don’t you _try_ and defend him just because he keeps good company!” He took Phil’s hand off him and turned to Techno “You are a real piece of work, Techno, telling a funny story and then revealing what a _monster you are!_ ”

Techno felt a stab at his heart but couldn’t bring himself to disagree with Wilbur. He really wanted to, but he himself admitted that he was turning into something else. Philza was getting Wilbur to sit down while Techno was reflecting on himself. He was going to say something else when a voice came from the back.

“What are you guys yelling about…?” Tubbo said between a yawn, Tommy following close behind. Philza was about to talk them to bed when suddenly Tubbo gasped and Tommy looked shocked.

“Is that fucking blood?!” Tommy immediately walked towards Philza seeing reaching towards his bloodied cape. “What the fuck is this!”

Tubbo went closer to Techno, surprising the man. “that’s a lot of it… are you guys okay?” He looked at the pinknette expecting an answer. The other gulped.

“Our quest went a bit… _rough._ ” He glanced at Phil and Wilbur and continued. “But do not worry, we are not injured.” He looked a bit calmer at the words but kept glancing at his arm. Techno hide it behind his back and tried to give a reassuring smile. If it worked, he didn’t know, but Tubbo went to Phil’s side anyway.

“We are okay kids; we just have to wash up. You should go back to bed” Phil stood up and set his hands on their backs, pushing them lightly back to bed, but tommy just avoided him and went to techno.

“We can’t go back to bed now after you just had an _adventure!_ ” He said and smiled. “Big Brick is here again, and he has to tell us about his quests!”

“You can speak to him later, we are all tired and it’s quite late…” Phil started, but Tubbo interrupted.

“But he’s always busy… every time we met him in town, he has another quest and won’t tell us anything.” He looked at Phil with puppy’s eyes, making the man advert his gaze. He wasn’t falling this time. “We just want a story while we have the chance” 

“Yeah, we’ll go to sleep after you tell us!” Tommy added. He looked at Techno expectantly, but only received an apologetic smile in return.

“Sorry kids. Phil’s right, and I have to travel tomorrow, so I would like to rest.” He stood up, tommy moving aside.

“Where are you going?” the kid asked.

“I have to travel to manberg, and then to the capital.” Tommy and Tubbo looked at each other excitedly “I’ll be gone for a while, so-”

“WHAT? Take us with you!” Tommy grabbed his arm and Tubbo walked towards him too. Wilbur was quick to reach for them both.

“Don’t pester him now, he said it already. He has to _go”_ Thank god the kids were distracted enough to not notice the murderous look Wilbur was giving Techno.

“But he’s going on adventures!” Tommy replied. “We want to go have fun too! We have never even left this village.” Before any other could add anything, Tubbo chimed in. “Do you even know how to get there, Brick?”

Wilbur and Phil looked at Techno, and his lack of response was enough for them. They somehow forgot that the man had no knowledge of the _present_ world, the brunette almost smacking himself at the stupidity.

“you see? He doesn’t!” Tommy started.

“Do _you_ know, Tommy? No, and you aren’t even big enough to go even if you knew” Wilbur was quick to reply. Phil just grabbed both kids by their shoulders and was quick to move them towards their rooms. “Just as he said, I know it sounds fun, but you can’t go yet.” He ignored the replies and kept pushing them to their room. Looking back, he added. “Please don’t go yet, Techno, we have to talk a bit”

Wilbur was left with Techno in the room, both in silence with the sounds of tommy and Tubbo’s insistent questions to Phil in the background. Neither of them knew what to say, if there was something. It was a while before Wilbur dared to ask.

“Why manberg?” he looked at the other, puzzled. “I thought you didn’t know anything”

He looked a bit accusatory, but the answer was simple. “I may not know the places by heart, but I do know how to read a map” Techno raised his arms defensively “The quest girl showed me one, and luckily the alphabet hasn’t changed” Wilbur looked a bit embarrassed at his assumption, looking everywhere but the man in front.

“But you didn’t answer Tubbo a moment ago?” It was Techno’s moment to look awkwardly to the side.

“I mean… I know roughly where it is… but I have no actual idea how to safely get there…” He saw the other give him a questioning look. “Listen I am trying my best here I’ve been everything I can to go away as soon as I can” _not entirely true, but he doesn’t need to know that._ “I just need to find someone who can take me to manberg and from there I should be able to find the way to the tower by myself”

“Like anybody would like to go with you” The brunette rolled his eyes.

“I would like to go alone but I need to get there quick, not to get lost” It wasn’t like going alone was out of the question, but he would rather not let things get worse before even reaching a _possible_ solution. He didn’t want to put someone else in danger, so he decided that skipping some middle towns was better, avoid human contact as much as possible. He would need someone who was okay with the long trip ( _or at least he thinks it’s long_ ), which was the hard part. The _two people_ he trusted a bit were the brunette glaring at him and the blond parent who had _two kids to take care of._ Not that he would like to put Phil in danger again. 

Talking about the man, he was back from the kids.

“Jeez, those two really like to chatter.” He looked tired, not that anybody could blame him. “Anyway… you are leaving tomorrow?”

“Yes. I cannot postpone it anymore; I need to get to the tower as soon as possible” He started to fidget with his fingers. “I would like to ask if there’s any recommendations on… companions.” Phil was confused “It’s just that, well, I know that from manberg it _should_ be easy to get to the tower, but about getting to manberg itself... I Just don’t want to end up lost again, okay?”

Phil seemed to give it some thought, weighting the options in his mind. He took a moment before looking defeated.

“I don’t know anyone, sorry. Most people here like to stay here.” Techno joined his defeated look, but Phil looked at Wilbur. “Would you be able to stay with the kids while we travel?”

“What?” Said Techno and Wilbur at the same time.

“There’s nobody besides me who could lead you there, I know that even if by miracle someone was able, you need a bit of trust first” Techno was going to debate, but the words never came out. He knew he was right. “I have a lot of experience, so we shouldn’t take that long.”

“Phil, I m not putting you on danger” Techno was trying to give any excuse; he felt too guilty from before.

“I am well prepared, Techno, I literally have survival experience _and_ can fight back”

They started arguing about yes and no, Wilbur fading into the background while the gears on his head turned. He looked at both, the man he considered family and wanted to protect more than anybody else. Then, to the side, the closest person to the things he fears and wants gone from his life. He didn’t want Phil to go.

“What if I go?”

The other two looked at him incredulously.

“Wilbur, no offense, but I know you don’t like him” Phil said giving techno a quick glance.

“And that’s why it works.” Wilbur raised a hand so Phil would let him explain. “Phil, you are a great man, but you really do trust him a bit too much. I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy goes all demon and you try to talk it out.” Wilbur looked straight at techno, no hint of a smile on his face. “I know the lands even better than Phil, I may not know how to fight as well as him, but at the first hint of problem I know how to alert people”

“Wilbur that’s not-”

“No. He’s right Phil.” Techno interrupted. “It’s better to have someone who won’t hesitate. I would rather not hurt anybody if possible.” He started walking to the door, eyes following his back. He looked back at them. “I’ll have everything ready by tomorrow mid-day. Please wait for me by the tavern, so we can go”

“Sure. I’ll be there on time” Nodding, Techno left the house. Before Phil could start his rant, Wilbur spoke.

“I know what you are going to say, and I hate this as much as you do.” He visibly deflated looking a bit down. “I hate demons, Phil, I really do. But I promise that unless I am _a hundred_ percent sure he’s bad, I won’t immediately throw him under. Besides, I did need to travel anyway. You may be a family man, but I’m a free spirit bard who need coins on his pouch.” He was going to turn around to his room, but he was hugged instead.

“Thank you, Wilbur” said the man.

Wilbur reciprocated the hug, patting the other’s back. “Sometimes you are too soft Phil. Just a little bit too much”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.   
> ALSO thanks waga baba bobo for the Fanart!!! Look at dis!! AMAZING!!  
> https://imgur.com/a/hcEJ6vi


	10. Walking around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno and Wilbur begin their journey with small steps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a more calm chapter <3

Techno woke up feeling restless. After he left Phil’s house yesterday, he went straight to his room at the inn to prepare everything for the journey. He was still nervous about going with Wilbur- someone who had made it clear they would rather have him dead. They had been getting on better terms, but of course things could never go his way. He missed his times as a knight as he was better at a battlefield than social stuff, but now he couldn’t even go close to a fight without putting everyone in danger.

He sat up from bed and walked towards the dresser in the room, not bothering to open the curtains on his way. He opened the door to reveal all his current possessions; The bag with money, the small cape he bought on a whim, the guild sword (would he be able to keep it?), boots and a pin.

He grabbed the latest, giving it a look. He had forgotten about it for the most part, but it was one of the items he had woken up with. After tinkering with it a bit he had discovered it had something similar to a ruby inside, so he supposed it was more of a brooch, but he kept it closed it most the time, in the depths of the dresser. He didn’t feel comfortable looking at it and couldn’t place why, but he also felt like taking care of it was important. Another question for the tower to solve, he supposed.

He decided to take it with him, since he wasn’t going to return. He dressed in a simple shirt and his (now) usual dark pants, putting the boots on with the light armor he had saved up. Finally, he went to grab the cape and put it over his shoulders, closing the gap with the pin. With the sword scabbard and the money bag at the hips, he left the room.

He left the payment of that night on the counter and denied when asked if he was going to stay again. Going outside, he mentally checked all the things he had to do before mid-day- prepare the food, the tent they would probably use, plus checking if it was okay to take the sword.

He went around buying a bunch of stuff. Most food would rot in a few days so he bought enough for those, he would have to farm a bit in the middle but that was okay. Worst case Wilbur seemed to know how to use a bow, and Techno could take care of fruit and others. The Guild girl had asked that he return the sword, so he had to go to the only blacksmith there to check if he had any to sell, which luckily, he did.

Now set, he walked towards the meeting point.

The tavern was full of life even if it was working hours, but he supposed that was a good thing. He couldn’t see Wilbur around on the outside, so he decided to check if he had everything ready in the meanwhile. He was rummaging through the bag he got mentally ticking off the list of necessities when he heard a familiar voice from inside the inn.

He entered trying to make as little noise as possible, but the cheering was loud enough to make it an easy task. He went to sit in the corner, now smiling a bit at the view. Wilbur was sitting on top of the bar, guitar in his hands and singing a song that enchanted the customers. Hearing him live, he now understood why Phil often commented he wasn’t worried about the brunette traveling; he was good at his job, and the coins at his feet was a clear indication of how well liked his song were.

Waiting for the man to finish his performance, he clapped with the rest when the last note was sung, the singer bowing at the ovation.

Wilbur spotted Techno amongst the crowd and seemed a bit embarrassed while picking his earnings. The other left the tavern to wait for him outside, a small smile on his face.

“How long were you watching?” He didn’t look embarrassed anymore, just a bit sheepish.

“I joined for the last two songs. You have good stage presence” the other looked at him smiling.

“Of course, I’m a professional you know, the best in the job!” they both snickered at the comment for a moment, but Wilbur was quick to look surprised and then away. Faking a cough, he continued. “We need to go, then? Have everything ready?”

Mentally sighing, Techno nodded. “I’m pretty sure I have everything we need ready. I went around buying stuff earlier” The other just nodded, and he felt the tense atmosphere. He was expecting it, but the past reaction made him hope things wouldn’t be so bad.

Well, he had been wrong before. They started walking for the entrance, passing the river so they would need to go north and a bit to the west to reach manberg, but there were some forests and terrain they would have to be careful with. He didn’t know what things lived around those, at least not in the present. Not that he could fight the ones in the past in this condition.

In the quietness that had settled, he took a moment to see what Wilbur was wearing. It wasn’t the first time he saw his bard attire, but it still confused him a bit. He supposed after all this time fashion had to evolve, but seeing a bard not use white at all was weird to him. Wilbur used a blue and dark hue for his attire, having some hints of gold on them. A little cape (if you could call something so short that) that was blue with golden borders, matching the style of his beret. He had a dark shirt and thighs under his blue short pants. He wondered how, with the addition of the boots, he wasn’t melting under the sun. He wondered if it was one of those cases of “fashion before comfort”, something he had no understanding of.

“Isn’t it hot with all those dark clothes?” He tried making small talk.

“Yeah, but I’m a free bard and the road isn’t kind to light clothes. It’s fashionable _and_ has a use.” The other cut short. He was starting to miss Phil.

They walked for a long while, only casually breaking the silence to randomly comment about something in the woods, a noise or anything that catch their eye. It was a tense atmosphere, so Techno thanked that he could distract himself by watching the surrounding area. He tried to see what other things had changed, he didn’t know how long it takes for new species to begin or terrain to change so he always kept an eye checking it.

Nothing looked familiar enough. Clearly, he still recognized normal stuff, houses looked like houses and trees like tress, but he had seen how people acted now. It was way different. In his time, people were usually scared since the demons were way more present on daily life and kept everyone on their nerves even after they destroyed the last important camp. Heck, the people that killed him the first time were probably good proof of the violent aura that surrounded everyone.

Now? Now people smiled. They seemed way more careless in their daily life, not so many walls arounds and curfews were unheard of. He still found it weird that they could just forget a king and instead praise him like a God, but again, maybe he was misjudging what time could do.

“What are you thinking about?” He was brought back from his head by Wilbur. He looked away when he noticed Techno staring at him. “You are just… really quiet. It’s kind of making me nervous”.

“Sorry. I’m not really good at talking” He felt a bit bad for his lack of social skills. “I was just wondering how many things have changed” The other nodded in understanding.

“Was it pretty back then?”

“Eh… not exactly.” When the other gave him a weird glance, he continued. “Demons were already a thing back then and quite active. There was no day we wouldn’t have to send people to fight them”

“You mentioned being a knight, right?” Techno nodded. “Why haven’t we heard of you then? I know almost every tale in this country, and yet none talk about someone like you”  
“I mean, you guys kind of forgot Xisuma was an actual human and _not_ a deity” he answered. “I can see my own tales being forgotten in that mess”.

“Did you have good ones before?”

How to say it, Techno wondered. “People didn’t exactly think I was a good omen”. The other gave him a look to continue. “I was high up in the ladder, but I was known in the battlefield as a _feared_ knight. I take pride in my skills, but those often left everyone thinking that they would rather never cross my path.” He looked down pensive. “It just doesn’t matter if you save a thousand people, if your method is not pretty people will simply not see you as a good thing”

Wilbur just hummed in response, and they continued they journey in silence. They kept walking through the woods, one of them glad that this time something resembling a path was being followed. For the first part of their journey they would follow it, then take a detour to cut some towns.

It wasn’t till they found a nice clearing and the sun was setting that they decided resting for a while. Better said, Wilbur decided it, since he was tired, and Techno didn’t want to argue with him.

While Wilbur was left to set up a tent, Techno went around to collect wood so they soon had a nice fire going and could enjoy some well-deserved food.

“You really have too much stamina” Wilbur was pouting and looked rather tired. “Is that new or were you already like that?”

“I used to have good stamina already, but maybe it has been upgraded as well? I don’t know, really” He answered without thinking.

A tiny “huh” was all he got as an answer. Techno made sure the fire was warm enough and had enough sticks for a while and sat down relaxing. Wilbur was already munching on an apple that Techno assumed he had gotten from the bag, since beside the guitar and a bow he thought he could recognize as the one that usually hanged on the entrance of Phil’s house.

“Are you good with it?” At the weird look, he pointed at the weapon.

“Oh, A little bit.” He shrugged. “Phil taught me a bit, since I’m not really fit to use a sword. It gets a bit on the way with the guitar, but it works.”

“Do they still have those mixed things? I remember mixing instruments with weapons was a big deal back then”

“Wait, really?” Wilbur seemed interested. “That would be useful, if I could mix this guitar with the bow… but I can’t imagine it was comfortable”

“It wasn’t” Techno chuckled. Then he seemed a bit sad. “But it was a necessity. Being safe was a priority after all”.

“Sounds like it sucked”

“A bit. But there were still good things around.” He finally felt the sleep getting to him. “We should set up some sort of barrier, or we can take turns to look out. It is getting late, but I can take the first watch if you need”

“Nah, this area doesn’t have any monsters as far as I know. Well, beside you I guess” Wilbur laid down on the grass, looking up to the sky. “You can go sleep if you want. I’m not going to sleep yet”

Techno couldn’t see the others face, but the words made him think Wilbur didn’t feel safe sleeping with him awake. Every time he felt they could be on _normal_ terms, the other retracted back to a colder stance. Again, couldn’t blame him. So, he just nodded a bit and entered the tent to sleep.

Outside, Wilbur was conflicted.

It felt weird talking to Techno. It wasn’t uncomfortable, rather he was curious about all the things the other could know, specially tales and stories of old. But he couldn’t help the creepy feeling on the back of his mind, telling him that it was a facade, no matter how genuine the conversations felt. It went back and forth between starting to warm up to the guy and his senses telling him to just give him a cold shoulder and be safe.

He felt bad; but didn’t know if he should. He really wanted to forget the fear and just enjoy the other’s company, but it was easier said than done.

The trip was just starting, and he would need all his energy for the rest.

On another forest, a group of four was also setting down for the night. Dream had the watch that night, but Bad was still up to keep him company. He was laying down on his stomach, moving magic lights around his hands while staring at them as if he could see something more on them.

“Has it moved?” The masked guy asked after a while, looking down to his friend.

“Nope. Still on the same direction, so it must still be far” He made the lights disappear, his hooded face being hidden completely in the dark. It was quite amusing how only his eyes shined under the cover of night, a characteristic of the magic user.

The Masked man seemed pensive while adding some more sticks to the fire. After a while of being in silence, he looked at the other again.

“I’ll never get how you can track so well”

“Well, you did give me a very specific target” The other moved to sit up, tired of being down. “But we did have a bit of luck. The date you said it appeared wasn’t long from when we tracked it, so there was still enough magic around for me to feel. Besides, it was a pretty weird signal, so it was easier to pick it from the rest” With a hum he rested his back on the log the other was sitting on, watching the fire with a calm expression. “Your magic is way better”

“I don’t have magic, Bad” chuckled Dream. “Just training”

“I still don’t believe you are free of it” He didn’t need to check to know Bad was pouting. “You move too fast and always know where to step. Tells us your secrets, Dream”

“My lips are sealed” he was grinning under the mask. They kept making small talk to pass time, just enjoying the uneventful night. A fight would be entertaining for Dream, but he knew the rest would rather have a full night of sleep.

“Have you detected any other characteristic?” He asked Bad.

“huh? Oh, not really.” The lights appeared at his hands again, and he brought them closer to his face. “It’s still a red, big and strong. I cannot tell you what it looks like, sorry.”

“Don’t worry, knowing where to go is good enough”

“But I will say that it’s kind of wavy” The other tilted his head to show his confusion. “Most of the time, when I track a demon, it’s a stable light. But this one while it’s strong, it keeps doing a wave motion? I’m not sure what could it mean” 

“Are you sure it’s not something else interfering?”

“I wouldn’t know. Depending on what I track, I might be able to see other things around. In this case, its kind of hard to keep lock on it, so I can’t see anything around it” He furrowed his brows. “Since the spell works only on demons, I can’t even rule out that its interfering with people…” he seemed deep in thought, until a hand patted his head making him look up.

“Well, then we better get to it fast” Dream stood up. “I’m feeling a bit bored, so I’ll go do a round to see if anything is out here. Watch them for me, okay?”

Waving away, Bad was left alone in front of the fire. He looked back to the two tents, where Sapnap and George were currently sleeping. He curled a bit more on himself, bringing his knees to his chest. He never understood why Dream seemed so calm every time they went out on a new adventure, but he would be lying if he said it didn’t calm his own nervousness.

It was weird, knowing that they were going to meet with possibly the biggest threat they had ever seen in their lives, and feeling safe at the same time.

He supposed he should thank he had good friends for that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying to get back the weeks i didn't upload ;;; Hope you guys enjoy :)!


	11. Im not walking.

He should have realized the other wouldn’t enter the tent to sleep if he was already inside. Techno looked down at Wilbur’s sleeping figure, covered with a blanket and a bit dirty from sleeping on the forest floor. Considering the sun hadn’t even raised yet, it would still take the other a while to wake up. Techno went to check around for stuff they could use for breakfast, looking out for footprints or any suspicious signal around their camp. 

He was already in the middle of serving the fruit and water when the brunette woke up, sitting in the spot.

“Good morning” the other just looked at him with tired eyes, sleeping on dirt probably wasn’t comfortable. When given the bowl with food he showed no sign of being even aware of the situation, making Techno chuckle under his breath. It wasn’t till they were finishing the bowls that the other seemed to finally get a grasp of where he was.

Techno didn’t get why he looked a bit embarrassed, since nobody looked their best just waking up. “Thank you” said Wilbur, Techno nodding when receiving the bowl from the brunette. He went to clean them a bit with water while the other could freshen up and get ready for the day, putting everything in order in the sack, and looking up to the now already up sun.

Once they both were ready, they started their walk towards the north. Most of it in silence, but Techno supposed he could get used to it, since he didn’t expect the other to start conversations that he could follow, he didn’t know what they could talk about.

Wilbur on the other hand was debating whether to start talking or not. Yesterday he was left curious about a bunch of stuff, and the only thing stopping him from becoming as annoying as Tommy with questions was his own thoughts of the other. It wasn’t until they had walked for an hour in silence that he dared to start speaking.

“Hey Technoblade” he waited for the other’s hm of acknowledgement before continuing. “You never told us what type of knight you were”

“Uhh, A knight commander”

“Wait, really? How many people did you have under your wing?”

“I mean, I technically had a few dozen” at the others impressed face, he quickly went on. “But I didn’t like ordering people- and I had a good relationship with the king, so he allowed me to go alone every time I could”. 

“You had _special_ favors?”

“I wouldn’t put it like that- I just worked better alone, they saw that and allowed me. Besides there were other people higher than me, it wasn’t like I was a hundred percent required to do the job _one way only”_

“No wonder you don’t get tired now. You already worked to death before” Wilbur chuckled a bit at the others huff of annoyance, specially since he could see the amused look on Techno’s face. “Ah, but I guess the girls must have loved you then, a lonely knight hero~”

“What? No, I was alone” Techno didn’t see the others smile and continued “Beside I explained people didn’t have the best- why are you chuckling?”

The other just giggled “Something about the way you said it was funny” he continued to laugh for a bit. The other just rolled his eyes but didn’t look annoyed. This did get him wondering a bit about the other’s life. “How did you go on about your day, then?”

Techno looked at him a bit surprised. “Ah, well…” he looked like he didn’t know what to say, or how to start. “It was mostly a routine of waking up, working, and sleeping.” At the others bored expression, he quickly added. “I did attend some events from time to time- and I had a farm”

“A farm? What did you plant?” Wilbur was waiting for Techno to have all vegetables possible, remembering the time he did quests.

“Potatoes”

Wilbur waited for the other to continue, but nothing else came. “… anything beside that?”

“No, just potatoes.” The other gave him a judgmental look, making him embarrassed. “It’s a good vegetable! Can be cooked many ways and everybody likes it-”

“So, you just planted _potatoes_ and never anything else.”

“I tried pumpkins, but potatoes are just more fun-”

“You are a weird man, Techno” Wilbur laughed at the others embarrassment, and they continued to walk after that, now a lighter aura around them. He guessed that for the meantime, he could ease up a bit.

It was already afternoon when Wilbur realized they were close enough to a town. He knew Techno had said that they wouldn’t do any stops, but he also knew this town had horses and he was tired of walking everywhere, so he didn’t wait for the other before detouring towards the place.

“Wilbur, where are you going?” The other didn’t answer and Techno was left momentarily wondering if he should follow. He decided that he couldn’t leave the other alone, so he went towards Wilbur.

Needless to say, he wasn’t amused to see that they were walking towards a _populated place_.

“Wilbur, I think we agreed to not take detours”

“We did, Techno, we did.” He kept walking forwards, not checking if the other followed. “But we _didn’t_ agree on walking all the distance. They have horses here”

“Wilbur I am not going where people are” Wilbur turned around and Techno felt a chill at his smile.

“Techno, I am not walking all the way to manberg in these shoes”

“Then WHY did you choose them?”

“It’s called FASHION Techno, I am a bard I have to look the part” The other just groaned in annoyance but still went with him to the town, which was very lively considering it was past the closing hours of most places. They walked around looking for the stable, Wilbur noticing how the other wouldn’t get too far from him. He had to admit it was kind of cute, how someone who had the strength to defeat all foe get so nervous because people there was people around. He was tempted to run to see how he would react, but those mischievous thoughts were left in the back of his mind when the sound of horses was present.

“Hello good sir!” Wilbur walked towards the man sitting down in front of the four horses eating hay. “How much for each?” The man looked at him up and down, as if to weight their coins from their look.

“80 gold for each, no bargain unless is up” Wilbur then smiled looking at Techno, expectantly. The other looked for his pouch, not knowing why he expected to not be used as a wallet. It would take a big portion of their savings, but he knew Wilbur wouldn’t allow for no horse, and it would be uncomfortable to ride the same one.

160 gold poorer later they had chosen their new companions, one gray and one brown horse that Techno was sure needed to eat more. But at least now they could go faster, and Wilbur had no other reason to make a stop. He had tried to make them stay in an inn, but Techno’s money bag had suffered enough already so he quickly killed the idea.

He had to almost physically drag the bard away from the local tavern, but they were finally back in the road and now he would make sure they didn’t stop until their original destination was in sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it's so short considering the long ass pause between posts- I straight up died for a week from sickness and didn't write anything so im now trying to start again, i usually try have a 2k~ min. words but i think i'll have to change it to 1k cause clearly i die way too often.


	12. Solving lights

He would still be sleeping, were it not for the forceful shaking someone was submitting him to. Dream wake up with a groan, trying to push away whoever was rudely interrupting his sleep, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand and turning to see who it was.

“Dream, wake up, quickly look-” It was Bad’s voice, and he seemed to be crouching next to his sleeping bag, with his hands in front of the other’s face. Dream wanted to see what it was but noticed the other had his eyes closed.

“Why are you not looking?”

“You aren’t wearing your mask; I didn’t want to be _that_ rude” That got him to put his hand immediately on his face, remembering that he had taken it off for sleeping. Quickly grabbing it from his side, he put it on. “You can look now bad.”

“Okay? Okay.” He opened his eyes and brough attention to his hands, where a particular red waving light was rotating “It’s really strong right now, so I wanted to show you-”

“Bad, I have no idea what I am looking at”

“Oh, sorry. I forgot” He moved the light so it would stay in one of his hands, using the other to point at it. “This is the light I told you about, the demon we are tracking” Dream got a bit closer to the light, now more interested in it. “You see how it’s wavy? I finally figured out why”

“Well, that was fast. You really are an expert huh”

“Oh shut your muffin.” He giggled a bit. “But look at this” He moved his free hand and with the index finger did a swirling motion on the light, which turned the exterior part into a darker red line, leaving a perfectly sphere red light in the middle.

With a little sound of amazement, Dream moved around a bit trying to check it all around. “What does the outer ring mean?”

“Well, it proves you right!” At the confused gesture, he coughed a bit. “You guessed that something was interfering with the signal, so I kept trying and get this; Remember it was hard to track? Well the wavy thing, this darker red- It’s another demon! And it’s causing both of those things” He huffed his chest in a proud gesture.

“So, we have _two_ demons free” Bad lowered his hands and rubbed his neck.

“Well, yeah. But!” He gained back his enthusiast look. “I wouldn’t say they are working together” 

“What makes you say that?”

“When they work together, Demons have the same color light” he explained. “As far as we know the color it’s their objective. Red means violence, of course. But dark red is not the same as red, it’s more of a, uhm, _passive,_ type of harm”

“So, because they don’t match, you think they are not a team?”

“Yes. It’s too early to set anything in stone, but I think the darker one, like us, is tracking the other”

Dream stood in silence a bit, thinking about the new information. While bad was quick to rule the team, he thought that it was improbable that they weren’t. If anything, he was running the possibility’s in his head, from a parasitic relationship, mutualism to even babysitting, in a sense. He had seen some demons _‘watch over’_ others, trying to get them stronger. If this was that case, it would shine a light on why one was hiding the other.

“They are also moving faster than before”

“What?”

“It started moving faster, I mean they are still far to know _where_ but it’s definitely faster”

“WHY DIDN’T YOU START WITH THAT?”

“Don’t worry so much- we are still far”

“Yeah and I’m not going to let it get even more away”

Dream got up and out the tent, noticing how only Sapnap was awake, and he quickly started to get ready to depart. He turned back to the other and signaled to get ready.

“We are leaving in 15’, get the rest ready”

On another road, two dumbasses were having a race.

Techno was winning bit a bit, he had to admit he was quite liking his horse, even nicknaming him ‘Carl’ (a name that made Wilbur laugh). It was fast and seemed fairly clever, brown fur and a lighter mane made it fairly pretty too. They had been discussing about them a bit before, they had been way more friendly to each other, but Techno guessed buying a horse for him had a big part on the other’s more friendly attitude. Leaving that aside, Wilbur was getting bored of the monotone journey, so he started the race as to make things more fun.

Even with the winning start, he was losing. Wilbur just followed Techno’s trail laughing all the way. He was having fun, and they were still traveling towards Manberg so there was no real harm on what they did. They kept it up until they were in a less dense part of the forest, where they decided that letting their horses rest was a good option.

They just sat down a bit in the grass, watching the horses eat and drink from some nearby pond. Wilbur was checking his guitar, and Techno was content with checking the stuff inside the bag, organizing it again.

“That was a fun race” Wilbur commented, taking Techno’s attention.

“Yeah”

The brunette looked like he wanted to say something, and Techno waited a bit for it. When the other stayed silent, he went back to moving stuff in the bag.

“You are a good guy.” Techno looked at him with a confused look. “I’m sorry, it’s just weird. I just… I’m used to _Demons_ being evil, you know. Even when mimicking people, they always have something…off. But you just feel like anybody else and it’s a bit disorienting” Techno was going to ask, but Wilbur gestured for him to wait. “I just been wondering if all Demons start like you… Don’t worry, I’m not asking for answers from you. I know you don’t know either”

“I don’t think they do” It was Wilbur’s turn to look confused. “Unless things have changed on that aspect, as far as we knew back then, they don’t.” The other seemed to want him to continue, so he did. “At least, King Xisuma was sure that demons had not a single human part in them. I never asked _how_ but, well, I wasn’t doubting him either”

“So you are a special case?”

“As far as information goes, yes.” He looked down, pensive. “And even if they did, It doesn’t change stuff that much. Their actions would still be bad.”

“But they would be forced to do the bad stuff, wouldn’t that-”

“-make it so that freeing them from those orders be the best?” Wilbur looked at him a bit shocked. “For me at least… I made it clear I would rather have you get rid of me.” The other just looked away with regretful expression, and Techno felt a bit bad for bringing the mood down so quick. He quickly stood up grabbing the bag.

“I’m going to set the horses. We should start moving again.”

Wilbur just nodded in silence, both going towards their horses. Techno set the bag to the side of his and started mounting. He looked back at Wilbur, noticing he was not trying to get on. He was about to ask if something was wrong, when Wilbur looked at him.

“Just for the record, I do hope Keralis can help you. And-” Whatever else he was going to say, he was stopped by a sudden movement at their side. At first, they looked confused at what appeared to be a rabbit running from the path towards them, but they soon grew alarmed when it was more than just one rabbit, and more of a horde of small animals running past them, agitating their horses. Techno almost fell of _Carl_ and Wilbur had a hard time controlling his horse, but they managed to calm them down eventually.

“What the fuck was that?” Wilbur asked once all the animals had ran past them, and they both looked at where they came from, which was the path they now had to follow.

“No idea.” Techno patted his horse to move, prompting Wilbur to jump on his. “But we better not wait for it to come” He started moving towards the path, and Wilbur was quick to follow after him. He just hoped whatever it was, they could get away fast enough. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying to get back into motion, i kind of like the '1k min' words rule, since it's easier to write 2 1k+~ chapters per week than 1 2k' one. Why? Idk but it is.


	13. Going fast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You seem very tense” Wilbur was close enough to not need to talk too loudly to be heard, but even then, he tried to get even closer.
> 
> “I have this weird feeling” Techno was still looking around, registered every small movement from the branches to the leaves on the ground. “I can’t see or hear anything, but something just doesn’t feel right”

They had been watching their backs for the last hour or so. After the initial realization that there was nothing around them, Wilbur had calmed down, but Techno was even more aware of his surroundings. In that nothingness even the sound was lost, and it felt as if the air was thicker than before which put his nerves on the edge.

They weren’t going that fast, in part because he feared if they made enough noise the creature would pick them apart, and conflict was the last thing he needed at this moment. They went like that, barely trading words and keeping an eye around.

At the eyes of the horned figure, those precautions were useless. It kept its distance, never going close enough to be seen but never far enough to not see them. Keeping track on the man was easy enough when he had been _for some reason_ staying on the small town, but now he had to make a small effort to hide.

‘It does not matter’ was all it thought. All that was needed was to get results. Crawling down it moved towards their right, hidden by bushes. It seems that he could feel it’s presence, not enough to spot them but going by the paranoid aura around, at least it could tell something was not right. All those notes were to be given to another of its own kind, for the information was of high value to their lord.

It seemed the tiny scare it gave them didn’t have a reaction outside of the expected for people, so it considered sending a bigger threat to them. Maybe eating the companion would give something to write about; but given that they didn’t know _how strong_ he had gotten; it could risk the operation if it became self-aware or an enemy.

It did give it an idea.

Maybe this realm was not enough on itself. Given the time, it had shown that it wouldn’t cause him to lose control unless given specific circumstances; and even on those he had somehow managed to free himself from the overload of energy.

Considering that it was going towards that wrenched necromancer’s tower, delaying their travel seemed like a good option. More time to observe, more variants to see.

It moved ahead, readying their trap.

“You seem very tense” Wilbur was close enough to not need to talk too loudly to be heard, but even then, he tried to get even closer.

“I have this weird feeling” Techno was still looking around, registered every small movement from the branches to the leaves on the ground. “I can’t see or hear anything, but something just doesn’t feel right”

“Maybe you are being paranoid?” He immediately regretted seeing the others face of incredulity at the claim. “Don’t look like that, it’s just that I rather not be scared through all the trip”

Techno sighed and looked downwards. “I know. I’m sorry… Maybe I am paranoid. Not knowing makes me nervous”

“It’s okay man, I get it” Wilbur gave him a hopeful smile. “Not knowing about you set me on my nerves. But if I could learn, you can too. About all. About now” He only got a small smile as a direct reply, but he could see the other shoulders loose up a little. His words had been sincere; the more he spent with the other, the easier it was to leave the fears behind. Not to be confused with a naive view, but rather a hopeful one.

They kept the pace, now a lighter feel in their chest. They just needed to keep going like this, and they might make it safe and sound to Manberg. According to the plan, they would make just a few stops before they could reach the place. Then it was getting the permissions, and Wilbur had yet to tell Techno about his acquaintance Jschlatt, who might not do favors for free but has enough connections to make those prices worth it.

Maybe he would be there. If not, while they prepared the rest, he could send him a letter and hope he was in good humor.

A strong breeze was all the warning they had.

Wilbur had turned his head looking back at the air, since it was annoying in the eyes. He then noticed that a big creature was behind them. Before he could realize what, the shape was, Techno had slapped his horse and they were now going fast away from it.

They could hear the steps behind them, cracking noises accompanying the growls and panting of it. It froze their blood, the knowledge that it was so close to them and a small mistake would end up in disaster. Their hope was to outrun it, make it disinterested in them. Their heartbeats were on their heads, Techno had unsheathed his sword and was slashing hard at branches trying to somehow make the beast slow down enough. In the worst case he would make Wilbur get away and try his luck. 

Wilbur showed his own strength by shooting down arrows to the beast, but those seemed to barely hurt it by the lack of blood, giving Techno a weird sense of déjà vu. They kept going, the light of the sun drowned between the denser foliage and in their panic, they hadn’t noticed that the road was not their path anymore. They kept on moving forward, until the trunks of the trees stopped their horses.

They were quick to turn around ready to fight as a last resource, but when they looked through the thickness of the forest there was no creature nor monster to be seen.

“What the fuck” Wilbur whispered, still looking for the creature.

“Don’t let your guard down” Techno was already off his horse, blade ready to strike. He slowly walked towards the way they had come from, but he couldn’t see anything move, neither could he hear for that matter.

He turned around to talk to Wilbur, when his nerves spiked, and he was throwing himself to cover the other.

As soon as he grabbed his arm, a purple light surrounded the area, leaving no more than the forest behind.

Bad was having the worst migraine of his life. They were on their way, the light was still on his sight, it had even slowed down quite a bit giving Dream a bit more confidence. Sapnap was joking around with George when Bad had fallen of his horse. Worried, they had gone to him immediately noticing how he kept covering his eyes.

“Bad! Answer us!” They had worry in their voices, but he couldn’t hear them. The backlash of the sudden disappearance of the light had been rough. With no warning, he hadn’t been able to let go of the signal and was now suffering from too many getting to him.

They had to stop, and after getting water and a moment of rest, he was finally able to explain to the rest that light was gone.

“WHAT?” was the shared response from the three, George being the only one who did not scream it to Bad’s dismay, for his head hurt more with the extra noise. Even then he couldn’t blame them for it was a weird situation even for him. Was it killed? But then it would have faded, not straight up disappeared from the radar. Had it been teleported? Had it reached Caster status and warped somewhere else? Could he find it again then?

“Don’t _scream_ at him” George said to the other two who had been panicking quite loudly while he tended to Bad. Turning back to the laid down man, he quietly asked. “Are you feeling better?”

“Yes, But I could do without the screaming” He kept drinking water, but the pain was less now. He turned to the other two and was quick to talk. “I don’t know _why_ yet, but it _is gone._ I’ll try getting the signal back, but it might take me a while.”

Dream was unreadable, seemingly staring at him. Dropping his shoulders and rubbing his neck, he apologized. “Sorry for the screams. We felt quite the panic, didn’t we? Sorry Bad” The last part was repeated by Sapnap, who looked guilty.

“I get it. I’m surprised too.” He looked at his hands, a sting on his chest. He usually didn’t lose the signal like this; he didn’t usually lose the signal _at all._

“Do you need time…?” Sapnap asked.

He took a moment before answering. “Maybe. I am not sure I can get it back, since it’s the first time it’s gone like that” Before they could say anything, he continued. “I think we might need to go back a bit. Best case while we go back, I will get the signal back, worst case I have to ask some contacts for help”

None of them liked the answer, but they didn’t know another way.

Bad just hoped he could get it back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am liking this "1k twice a week" way. Also finally i solved the (1) thing about the fanfic that kept me up at night LMAOOOOO 
> 
> Hope y'all enjoy :)!!


	14. Warped places

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno and Wilbur are now on the same ground of not understanding their surroundings, while BadBoyHalo is having Magic university flashbacks.

Everything was warm beneath him. His hands, torso and legs felt the hotness of the ground, not enough to burn but to feel like laying around wasn’t a good idea. He tried to move, but his muscles ached, and his eyes refused to open. He stood there for a while, laying on his back with his limbs sprawled out. Besides standing up, he was having a hard time remembering what had happened.

He was with Wilbur. He knew that, they were on their horses. Had they been running? A dizzy feel was on his mind, clouding his thoughts from answering him. He pushed further. They were being followed by something, they speed up and tried to outrun, to distract it. They had been stopped and then-

As soon as his mind refreshed the last part, he was up on his feet.

He looked around, noticing that he was on a forest, just not _the_ forest. The trees didn’t have leaves, but they had a blue-ish dense mass as a replacement. He noticed what he thought was tall grass, growing upwards and touching the red rock as a roof. There was a bright pink aura surrounding the area.

Another thing he noticed, was that he had no idea where the fuck he was.

Before the panic kicked in, a cough behind him got his attention. A mop of brown hair was all he needed to see to aid Wilbur in standing up.

“By Xisuma, what the fuck was…” Wilbur accepted Techno’s help without looking at him. “I feel like a bear hit me” When stood up, he turned to talk to the other, but a rather shocked expression settled on his face.

“What the fuck!” He moved past techno looking around, a permanent open mouth and he spun taking in the view. “Where the fuck!”

“I don’t know” Techno was feeling the creeps crawl up his skin, the air feeling dense and heavy and not at all helping with calming down his senses. He didn’t recognize anything here, and even given his usual ignorance of the word this was just plain weird.

“It fucking reeks, Techno” Wilbur was covering his nose with his hands, a disgusted expression on his face. He had to agree, the smell was of burnt charcoal and what he would describe as rotten vegetables. He noticed that there were blue mushrooms around them, and weird bright fruit on the trees. Were those the source of the smell, or was the whole place it?

“Where the fuck are we” Wilbur was still moving and looking around, thought he didn’t dare go that far from Techno. The other noticed that while the horses were no where to be found, they still had some items with them. First, they still had their clothes, which considering that the last time he had been woken up in a random place he didn’t made it a bit more comfortable. Wilbur’s guitar was in the ground, and his bow in his back. Techno’s sword was on him, but there were no signs of the bag or the rest of their stuff.

“Let’s try to recall what happened” Wilbur looked at him, still nervous. “We were being followed, right?”

“Yes, by that big creature” Nodded the brunette.

“And we ran out of path” Another nod.

“The horses were with us, weren’t they?” Wilbur chipped in. “But they are not now.” He seemed to just realize it.

“And then, what happened? I just remember that I jumped towards you”

“I saw a purple light and you coming towards me, but that’s as far as I remember.” They both tried, but they couldn’t remember anything else. Techno was going to suggest they move around a bit to try and see if they find anything familiar, when a small growl called their attention.

They both turned to towards a particularly short tree, which “leaves” were so close to the ground it could almost be considered a bush. Behind those they found two white dots shining and felt the distinct sensation of being watched. While Wilbur was quick to moved away, Techno slowly moved closer.

“Techno, what are you doing!?” Wilbur said in hushed tone. Techno indicated him to keep quiet, and Wilbur wanted nothing more than to grab the other man and bolt out.

Techno reached a hand towards the tree, and a small yelp of surprise made him stop.

A small creature was now visible, for it had gone out of hiding at the gesture. It was smaller than both, and they could have mistaken it for a small child were it not for the snout, tusk and ears of a pig it had. The most striking part, however, were those milk white eyes that they could feel stared into them.

They held their breath, waiting for it to act. Both parties were stuck in position, not knowing what to do. It was after what felt like an eternity that the smaller one gave a hesitant step towards the other. It didn’t seem to be scared, yet it acted wary of the other’s movement.

The small, dark clawed hand reached towards Techno’s pants, grabbing them. It seemed interested in the texture, feeling it between its fingers. The taller man just looked dumbfounded at it. Then back to Wilbur, who now looked shocked at the scene.

“Wilbur, what do I do” He hushed towards him.

“Techno, is that a pigling?” Wilbur sounded horrified at his own words.

“What the heck is a piglin?!” Techno hushed back. The smaller creature looked directly at his face, making him gulp. It stared at him for a full minute before deciding it had enough, letting go of his pants and walking away a bit. It seemed to decide they weren’t a menace, thought still it turned it’s head towards them a bit.

“Techno we are in trouble” Wilbur was pale, and now firmly grasping his arm. Techno hadn’t noticed him getting closer, distracted by the small one. “I think I know where we are”

“And that would be?”

“Techno, I think we are in hell”

The sunlight was entering through his window, straight to his face.

He tried moving around to cover himself, but it was annoying enough to force him into waking up. He lazily stood up, yawning into his hand. It took him a moment to fully wake up, then moving out of bed and putting on his fluffy slippers.

He stood up, stretching a bit before fully opening his eyes and getting surprised at the soft color of the walls.

Bad sometimes forgot that he wasn’t in his home anymore.

The walls of the guest room in Nihachu’s home were decorated with paintings of flowers, which combined with the furniture in the floor. A small wardrobe, the bed and a mirror were all it had since even when told he could bring his own stuff, Bad had been insisting they probably wouldn’t need to. He had thought the visit would be short, just a quick transaction of information’s and scrolls and then back to the road. 

He didn’t expect for it to turn into almost three full months of office work.

They had gone back to the Capital after Bad couldn’t get the track back, and then he had gone straight to Nihachu’s place. Since they were friends to some degree, being both trained in basic magic under the same teacher, he had a bit of an easier time getting to her than other mages. Besides, even if she had gone to specialize in divination, the fact that she had found the signal in the prophecy might have helped him into getting it back.

Sadly, it didn’t go that way. While she had been able to feel it, just like him she had been left without a trace of it after a while. He had commented to her about everything, the second light and how it had warped the bigger one, how they had been able to track it well until the last moment, how he didn’t know what had happened.

That night they hadn’t rested, deep in books to figure out what had been the cause. They thought that maybe it had teleported somewhere else; but even with Nihachu boosting Bad’s magic with her own, he wasn’t able to locate it at all, and he doubted it had teleported to _another country_ , given the range they managed. She then suggested that maybe the second light had made a visibility spell, hiding them both.

They tried again, but they couldn’t find the red bright light.

Then they had gone through every option the books would tell them, spawning a week of efforts without any result. It was as if the demon had died, but Nihachu agreed with him that the way it disappeared didn’t resemble the case.

It wasn’t till the end of the first month that they got something; the other light.

It had taken them an amount of research worthy of a graduating student, but they finally managed to get the spells to tangle in a way that allowed them to see it once again. Thanks to Nihachu and her visions they could confirm it was a caster, but this opened a new can of worms. Casters were known to have magic in them, and intelligence to some degree. Not enough to reason with them, but enough to act in planned ways.

“Do you think it really teleported it far, far away?” Nihachu had said, while concentrating on the circular pattern she had set in the table. It was a charm to try and get more visions of the demon, as to learn something.

“I don’t want to think they are capable of that” Bad answered, re reading a paragraph on how to efficiently maintain a high level of magic energy for a long period of time. It was his turn to boost her, after all.

By the half of the second month, they got a second answer; After all their vigilance, they caught it performing a strange ritual. It was going around in circles around a rock, and while they couldn’t hear or understand what it said, they could see the rock turn a darker hue by the moment. They were in complete silence, both looking through the vision, expecting the answer.

A sudden purple light glowed at the feet of the monster, and they saw it sink into the ground, it’s light disappearing in the same way the lights had before.

The silence that followed the vision was not of shock at the discovery, but at the familiar hue of the portal they both knew where it led.

It had been the revelation that the nether was now being actively used the part that worried them and left them both to this day, the almost three-month mark, working on special enchantments for gear and tools.

Dream, Sapnap and George had been shocked at the news, since the nether was known to be a highly prohibited land. Not that many knew or could make a portal to it, anyway. It required materials that were simply of too high of a cost, just to make a door to a place that most would avoid if given the option. They knew the stories, of how everything was different, how flying monsters screamed fire and were on fire, how you could find colonies of demons and monsters that wouldn’t hesitate to destroy any uninvited guests.

Even with the rumors of great treasure and minerals that could probably be sold and support one’s family for generations, risking the life for a low chance of success and a lifetime of trauma was enough to scare anybody from even trying.

Or almost anybody, given that late on a night research session, Dream had suggested the idea of travelling there to Bad. To say that the latter had given him an earful of why it was a bad idea was too soft of an answer given that it had lasted at least one hour of non-stopping arguments. From the time warping properties of the place (which were still under study, since they couldn’t really test it) to the high quantity of unknown creatures, Bad had covered all ground on the why _not_ go to basically _Hell._

Besides, now entering the kitchen of Nihachu, he knew that he had done the right thing back then. While his friends could take other requests to keep themselves occupied, he looked towards the to do list Nihachu had set in the wall of the room. ‘ _Make magic compasses_ ’ was checked out. If the demon’s energy was back, those would alert everybody of it. ‘ _make better armor_ ’ While the blacksmiths had been a bit late on the delivery, they made up for it with their own speed at spell making.

They were both doing their best, even if their motivations were different. Bad felt generally bad about having lost the track; even if he now knew it hadn’t been a _he_ problem, the time before arriving to Nihachu were spent thinking of self-deprecating words and thinking that maybe he wasn’t cut for the job anymore. He thanked a bit the help the girl had provided, since now he could go back to a more positive outlook; They just had to prepare till it came back, and once it did, they would be quick to exterminate the demon.

He was hoping their preparations would be enough. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can i just say,,, as someone who watches the smp that the recent events had me shook,,, also i hope you guys enjoy this chapter! <3


	15. From the mush to the rock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno and Wilbur are trying to find a way out of their predicament, and also laughing at stupid stuff.

The ‘grass’ felt nice to step on being like mush, but solid enough to not throw him out of balance. The hue was pretty, too, mixing the cyan together with the purple fog that surrounded the top area of the zone. Walking behind the other was peaceful here since after the tiny one ran off; they hadn’t encountered anything alive.

However, he truly appreciated the place once they got away from it.

He noticed that it was deserted for the most part, no grass or any sort of plant growing. Even the purple fog had morphed into a darker red one. His companion had to take a moment, murmuring how the light changing had given him a bit of a pain in the eyes. After he adjusted, they continued their walk.

Where were they walking to? Well, nowhere specifically. They were searching for any remains of obsidian; it had been Wilbur’s idea. After he had realized they were in Hell, or as the bookworm magicians called it, _The Nether,_ he had scrambled his memories for any fact he had about the place. He remembered asking Jschlatt about it once, after finding the name in a book on his living room.

_“What’s is this?” He had pointed to the cover of the book, which showed a cascade of lava and a weird floating balloon with a bunch of strings at the bottom. ‘The land in the purple mirror’ was the name of the book, and Jschlatt squinted a bit when he noticed it. With a relaxed walk he approached Wilbur, taking to books off his hands and putting it back._

_“Just a bunch of useless facts” He seemed salty about it, but was quick to grin at the other “But being you, they might be worth something in a song”_

He had explained a lot after that. Their afternoon reunion for tea and some information business (he was a bard after all, he knew what people liked to talk about around the towns) turned into a class lecture, the man seemed to know a lot of this ‘new dimension’ thought it talked about it with a certain disdain in his tone. He talked and talked, about how the book related that a few decades past people had managed to open ‘doors’ to a new place. He even offhandedly mentioned how the public had the wrong information on purpose.

It never surprised Wilbur how much Jschlatt knew, since he had connections from around the most powerful people to the casual thief that happened to catch his eye. He explained that for the public eye, all information regarding the truth was a secret, so most thought of it as a fairy tale. But for those who discovered the true nature of those tales, a high-level prohibition was set in place.

The ‘ _Nether’_ , he had explained, was a place of great opportunities and even higher risks. As he had called it, ‘ _If demons come from somewhere, it’s there’._ The creatures he spoke of didn’t need a long page to shock Wilbur to the core, the fact that the small information they had was already terrifying made him want to never learn more.

The most interesting part for him now, was when he dared to ask about how they entered. Jschlatt seemed to take his moment, and Wilbur wondered if that he had crossed a line. The laugh that came after made him jump, even if he was used to the sudden shifts in the other’s mood. The smug yet menacing expression on the suited man almost made him regret asking.

 _“The way in you ask?”_ walking towards the sofa and dropping down on it, he relaxed there. “ _A fool with magic could do it, really. They set a ring of dark stone- obsidian to be precise, and they light it up”_ Wilbur looked at him suspicious, he knew the other wasn’t done. “ _But the way out is more complicated”_

_“Why?”_

“ _There’s no obsidian there”_ He had said, grinning “ _So you better pray somebody else opens one here, or you are fucked”_

With that information in hand was that he proposed to Techno to search for one, maybe somebody had left one open. The other didn’t seem hopeful at the idea, but he complied anyway, both walking starting to walk around.

The heat was the worst part, he had decided.

“It’s so hot here” He complained to Techno. He could feel the sweat make his clothes stick to him, making want a shower.

“That might have something do with it” Following where he was pointing, Wilbur noticed the flow of magma that was falling from above them, loosing sight at the rock covered bottom.

They both walked forward, Wilbur glancing around and counting other magma flows he could see. Three there, two on the other side, it seemed that the ceiling had a bunch of leaks everywhere. He wondered if the top of the roof was just a giant lava pool and hoped that it wouldn’t break on them.

“Watch your step”

He was a bit distracted so Techno had to grab him before he could walk too close to the cliff. He gasped looking down, for they were in front of a certain drop into a gigantic lava pool that expanded out of his eyes reach.

“By god… that’s a lot” He didn’t even notice he was grabbing Techno’s arm till the other tried to move, which prompted him to let go.

“It is, and we better keep watch to not fall on it” Techno squinted his eyes looking at it, an annoyed look on his face.

“What’s that face for?” he seemed confused at Wilbur’s question. “You look angry”.

“Ah” Setting a hand on his neck, he looked away a bit embarrassed. “I’m not be sure of that. It just hurts a bit’ to look at it, so bright”

“Bright? The lava?” Techno shook his head, pointing to the ceiling. “But it’s dark”

“Dark? For me it looks like strong red” Again, squinted his eyes looking up, just to quickly look the other way. He started walking again, Wilbur following.

“Is that a demon thing? Weird colors?” The other shrugged.

“No idea, it’s not like I can check with-” A sudden stop, putting a hand in front of Wilbur and a signal of silence in his face. Wilbur looked past him to see what had made him stop, and the sight of a group of tall, pink empty eyed creatures made his blood run cold. They were pigs on the head, some even with rings on their floppy ears and others with golden armor as protection. They were also looking directly at them, and he noticed the crossbows and swords in their hands.

Techno had already reached for his sword in a defense position while searching for a quick way out while Wilbur was getting his bow ready. The ‘piglins’ as Wilbur had called them looked at both but made no movement and kept staring. Techno tested moving around them, keeping a distance and protecting Wilbur by making sure he was behind him from their perspective.

They made their way around, and both relaxed at the apparent disinterest of the group on pursuing them. They were going to continue their way, when a growling made them freeze. They hadn’t noticed a lonely Piglin close to them, which was showing them their teeth and was grabbing their golden sword in a ready position. Techno got in a defense position and Wilbur moved back, getting ready.

The Piglin stopped growling.

Techno looked at the Piglin confused, and a quick glance back showed that Wilbur was the same. Unsure if he should put back the sword, he stayed standing there trying to get why the growling stopped, maybe they had accidently scared it? And now they weren’t scared?

“We should continue” Wilbur said while getting closer to Techno, but the growling started again. Wilbur stopped immediately and looked at Techno, who was looking at the Piglins eyes. And then at Wilbur. And at the Piglin.

“I think he hates you” he sounded a bit surprised under the monotony of his voice that came back after the initial shock. He signaled for him to stay where he was, Wilbur watching him get closer to the piglin without anything happen. He then was signaled to get closer, which he tried but was immediately prompted to move away after the creature growled and started raising the sword.

“It does hate you!” Techno seemed a bit amused, even if he was still taking care on not letting the piglin get close to Wilbur.

“Wha-? Why does it hate me and not you? _Oh_ ” Techno was looking at him with a deadpan stare, and he felt a bit dumb for asking.

“To be fair with you-”

“Techno…!”

“…I do look human…”

“Techno I didn’t mean it like-” Techno just laughed at him, Wilbur looking annoyed at first but then joining him with a small laugh. It felt nice joking about it rather than feeling the topic a taboo. After the laugh died a little, Techno looked at the piglin that was now giving a curious look.

“Do these even counts as Demons?” he tilted his head, the piglin mimicking him.

“I don’t know, Jschlatt- The book guy, Techno” A flash of recognition was on his face. “Didn’t really go into that part, just that all these things live here. Thought, they do sometimes appear in the actual world”

“Well, let’s not test or luck and keep going” Techno walked away from the piglin and towards Wilbur, both starting to walk away from the piglins.

“If they do, do you think he’s now your cousin or something?” He laughed at Techno’s unamused face. He would have tease him more often, it was quite amusing.

The next place they found wasn’t great, in Wilbur’s opinion. It was like a broken dark castle, for the walls were made of a blackstone of sorts and it had holes in separated places. However, even if the structure was unimpressive and the color palette undesirable, it scared him to the core the fact that he didn’t have enough fingers in his hands to count every single piglin that roamed it.

“I’m not going close to that” Giving a quick glance to Techno, checking the others face. He wasn’t getting close there even if their lives depended on it. Because he would die. It wasn’t even a question on his mind, those were too many swords and crossbows and he was very much squishy and made of meat.

“I wasn’t planning on that” Techno wasn’t getting closer to the place, but rather tapping his feet while thinking. “Could a portal be inside?” He turned to Wilbur, who shrugged.

“Don’t look at me as if I should know” Crossing his arms, he looked straight at Techno. “Besides, even if there _was a portal_ , I cannot get close without turning into a _pincushion_ ”

“You can’t, but I can” Wilbur looked at him weird, the realization taking a moment to set.

“No no no- You are not leaving me out here” Techno moved towards a close mound, crouching to check for something. “Techno I’ll die if you are not here”

“I don’t want that either, Wilbur” He was starting to pick at something in the ground, seemingly frustrated when nothing happened. “I don’t plan on leaving you _here”_ he looked around, searching.

“What are you doing, Techno?” Wilbur followed him while keeping an eye out for the piglins, they were still far enough but the fear didn’t die down. They moved towards a small hill, Techno starting to climb leaving Wilbur to follow as to not be left alone.

“Can you explain? Please-” Techno helped him get up at the top, and once Wilbur was standing, he showed him a small cave. The brunette just looked at him, waiting for an explanation that didn’t upset him.

“You can hide here for a bit”

“I’m not burying myself while you go be buddys with some pig’s”

“It’s the safest option!” Techno raised both hands in a defensive motion.

“So, you just want me to wait here?” Wilbur move his hands as to exacerbate his point. “In the rocks?” he looked inside the cave, it was small and ugly, and he had decided he didn’t like it at all.

“But here you can be hide while I do the thing and _not_ be a pincushion. Besides we had to climb here, and I would bet they can’t do that.” Wilbur was still unconvinced, he would rather not get separated and be alone in a place that as far as he knew, was crawling with everything wrong in the world. “And you have a bow! You can just shoot them down in the _worst_ case.” Wilbur still gave Techno an upset look, crossing his arms and refusing to get into the cave. “Wilbur please, I’ll be quick”

Wilbur just sighed dropping his arms in defeat and walked to sit down in the cave. He was still uncomfortable with being alone, but he also wanted to get out of the whole place as soon as possible.

“I’m keeping the horse when we go back” Techno just gave a small nod, moving towards the small cliff to climb down, not before waving a small goodbye to Wilbur who returned it. Once he could hear Techno touch the ground down below, Wilbur allowed himself to get more comfortable in the warm rock.

He was going to tease Techno without guilt when he came back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy this chapter <3! I'm trying to write more often so there's not that many days between updates,, i hope i can keep it up! (the 1k rule still works... so well...)


	16. Repeating words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno has to enter the strange dark piglin fort; Wilbur is left to play with dust in the back.

_‘Be quick, be fast, don’t fight’_

Techno kept repeating the words in his head as he moved down the small hill, careful on his steps as to not fall and make a fool of himself. He didn’t want to leave Wilbur alone, yet he couldn’t bring him out of fear of him getting injured. Things were going so much better with him and he was not afraid to admit he cared for the brunette, so he wanted to get them both to safety as soon as possible.

It was a bit weird, seeing that the creatures that stood in front of him didn’t think of attacking him and rather walked around luckily not spotting his friend up top. He felt as if they should of attack him; it was an unpleasant feeling to know that right now the signs of something different were showing, even if he was beyond the point of doubting that things _were_ different.

The air felt suffocating once he entered the construction, the sound of his steps bouncing on the walls giving him the sensation that the place was too big for comfort. He had decided he didn’t like the place as it made his back itch even worse than when he was just walking around with Wilbur. The whole nether was giving him a bad yet comforting sensation that he wanted to ignore, but the closed space inside the black hall was making it hard to not get jumpy at every sound.

He could see an opening in front so he speed up the pace towards it, having to come to an abrupt halt when he realized there was a very tall drop and the bottom had broken paths and a lava pool that bubbled up, a kind invitation to a quick death. He took care of minding his path; everything inside was on ruin, leaving him with the feeling that a bad step could collapse the floor and he would be done for.

Trying to go around the room, his heart skipping a beat at the small yet scary jumps he had to do to navigate the floor. He would casually let out a huff of relief when the floor was firm and kept going, searching the small holes in the other walls for anything interesting. Guessing that either a purple light or a black framework was the best scenario, he moved into one of the holes but left disappointed at finding only a couple of piglins who gave him a confused look in the form of a head tilt, since their eyes were just as white as the rest of them.

However, in the far back wall he found something else got his attention; a staircase upwards to a room previously hidden from him. He walked up them, keeping in mind to check if all the steps were there. He peeked up to the room; he could see it was bigger than the others on the walls, yet smaller than the one he just had been at. He spotted a chest, a lantern right next to it, something hidden in the dark corner opposite to the chest. The thing that got his attention was that on the floor were bags scattered along with shiny stuff that he couldn’t see very clear.

Walking into the room he immediately went to check the small bags, most of which were empty or had no object of value. Feeling disappointed, he walked to the chest, but a small ‘clank’ brought his attention to one of the shiny things he had seen earlier and had now kicked accidently. Picking it up he realized it was a lighter, and shaking it told him that it still had fuel in it. He pocketed it, just in case it might help them later, especially since he didn’t know if they would get the bag back.

Now looking at the chest, he opened it to discover something that was surprising yet welcomed; two weapons, a crossbow and a silver sword. He was quite happy to see them shine, recognizing the magic that flowed on them.

He had no time to check which ones were, since a high-pitched growl made him turn around as fast as he could.

Hearing the steps rushing in the floor below, and felt his senses rise on alert at the loud steps up the stairs. Quickly moving to the back and holding the new sword in hand with the crossbow now set on his belt, he realized that the only exit of the room was now being swarmed by piglins that were no longer friendly towards him.

With no other option he dodged the first attack from the golden sword in the raging creature hand, moving then to stab it in the unprotected chest and then he was back to keeping distance. The piglin moved back a bit from the pain, then screaming as flames erupted from the injury, making it panic and run blindly towards Techno, who evaded again and didn’t turn back when he heard the thump of the body falling.

‘ _Fire’_ was his thought on a quick glance down to the silver sword.

Since more piglins were coming he quickly moved now towards them to stab the one closest to him, not letting the flames form before using it to push the rest down the stairs with the body winning him a bit of time. He let out a laugh at the screams they let out, feeling satisfaction at his plan working and the sound of the others probably moving away from the burning body.

He was going to continue down to kill the rest, but he stopped to glance back at the first body that burned in the previously dark corner of the room, now noticing the object previously hidden; a dark ring of an even darker stone.

Feeling his heart skip a beat, forgetting the previous idea at the discovery of what could be a perfectly left round framework.

The screech downstairs got his attention again, but now he had an objective in mind: get Wilbur to the portal. He kept that thought in his mind, while he went down the stairs to the room now filled with piglins who raised their weapons at him. Stabbing at them, he was not going to let them stop him. The phrase “ _get to Wilbur_ ” was all he registered in his mind, the blood of the monsters was spilling and the ones pushed down to lava screamed yet he felt as if his body was on autopilot, even if he had growled at the piglins or given them a painful bite leaving him with a bloody mouth there was no other thought in his mind besides the image of the brunette waiting for him outside, a image that he was holding on to with fear and strength.

He didn’t know anything around him, yet he had the necessity to keep his friend on his mind, thinking that if he let go, he may never see him again. Where had this fear come from, he didn’t know and didn’t care. He kept moving to where his legs lead him; Still pushing, slashing and setting fire to the group of monsters that now had no motivation to keep fighting and tried to run.

He needed Wilbur and nothing was going to stop him.

He was throwing the red rock dust around, trying to amuse himself.

Techno left him a while ago and Wilbur was bored, he couldn’t play guitar because of the sound and couldn’t go anywhere out of fear that a monster would get to him. He had been a good boy and stayed in the sad, warm, ugly and tiny cave that might as well turn into an oven and cook him alive.

He was sitting down watching the dust fall from his hand when the screams of the piglins got his attention. Quickly standing up he got his bow ready to shoot, waiting for any pig-looking head to show climbing the small hill. He waited, feeling a cold sweat go down his spine and trying to keep his nerves controlled while begging to Xisuma to not let him die there.

The screaming hadn’t gone down, but nothing was coming up towards him. With a bit of hesitation, he walked to the border taking a quick peak to the piglins, noticing that none where even looking at him. In fact, they had been storming inside the dark construction, which made him feel relief until he remembered that Techno was still inside it.

Doubting if he should jump and try help the other or wait a bit more up the hill, he was conflicting inside when the running went from being to the inside to out of the entrance; He was in trance looking at all the piglins squeak and rush to get away from it, some limping and even bleeding down. Spotting one that had an especially bad limp he saw it fall in an awkward way, as if he had been pulled back and was now being dragged back, letting especially high scream be heard.

Not even daring to breath, he looked as a pink mop that was now moving out of the entrance, noticing that the monsters that had not gotten far enough were now trying their best to move out of his way. He felt fear rise inside him when the head moved back a bit, letting those red eyes look directly at him.

He moved back until the bottom was no longer visible but could hear the small hits on the red stone indicating that something was coming up. He tried to aim his bow, but the shaking of his hand didn’t allow him to hold on to the arrows properly, letting them fall next to him just to peak his nerves when a hand was now at the top of the cliff and he couldn’t grab them properly.

His back was glued to the wall, now trapped in the small cave with the beast looking at him directly and an unsettling frozen expression on his face. He couldn’t recognize the man he had laughed with on this monster that was walking towards him while letting his bloodied clothes and sword get the ground dirty with big splashes of red.

Praying was his only idea, closing his eyes out of fear and wanting for it to end when the steps got closer and closer until he could feel it was in front of him, he could feel how the other was moving to crouch and made him fear opening his eyes for he thought those red cold eyes would be the last memory on his head.

He wasn’t breathing, now feeling those hands close to him and crying at the idea of now seeing Phil and the kids, little shits that he would miss and hoped to see again. The tears evaporated on the ground, and he was waiting for the moment of his death.

And he was waiting.

And waiting.

He kept waiting.

But it never came.

He was still scared, but he needed to know why he was still alive; it took him what felt like hours to muster the courage, but slowly, he opened his eyes.

Techno was in front of him, still with a neutral expression and looking directly at him yet making no movement towards him, the sword left on their side. Wilbur took a small breath and the other seemed to react, now slowly moving his hands around the crying brunette, hugging him.

“Wilbur” his voice was soft, surprising Wilbur who was now confused. Techno was hugging him; he wasn’t killing him. He was giving him a hug. A full-on hug. “Wilbur, I’m here” he spoke in a kind way, yet he seemed to not be fully there with him, and Wilbur didn’t know what to do beside slowly hug him back.

“Yes, we are… we are both here” he answered in a whisper, feeling the other put all his weight on him, and looking down on his bloodied face he realized that Techno had fallen asleep on his arms.

“What the fuck” he quietly whispered, more confused than he had ever been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all enjoy it!
> 
> Can u believe i tried finding a bastion for this chapter and had to make 3 creative worlds cause it wouldn't spawn, i checked for hours and there was none what type of luck is this,,,


	17. Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno wakes up and has a hard time understanding what happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> or as I would say; I somehow what should of been a short scene long and i am not sorry LMAO

Assuming he was resting on a pillow, resting seemed like an option he was going to take. Being tired had been part of his daily life for a while now and given the blessing of sleep was as tempting to him as an apple could be to a hungry child.

Sadly, he was not allowed to keep on resting for the pillow where he laid was moving under his head and as far as he knew, that didn’t happen on its own. He moved opening his eyes, the surprise making him get as far as he could from the ‘pillow’ quickly.

A surprise gasp was the answer of the brunette in front of him, who was sitting down against the red rock wall. It took Techno a moment to realize that this was in fact not a pillow, but Wilbur who now looked at him surprised.

“Wilbur? Why are you…?” He couldn’t remember the last thing that had happened or how had he ended up in his lap, but now he had to deal with the fact it had. “Heh? Why was I on your lap? Why are you looking at me like that?” Wilbur was still with a surprised expression focused on his face, which made him felt a bit self-conscious.

“Your eyes are red as fuck, Techno!” His reaction to Wilbur’s statement was rising his hands to his face but that ended up getting an ‘ow’ out of him, lowering his hand which now both had a small cut in them. “You have tusks!” Wilbur grabbed his hands, looking between them and his face. 

“WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?” Techno was looking at the other with confusion, he still couldn’t remember how he got there. Wilbur was talking but his word fell on deaf ears, trying to remember the facts was taking all his concentration. He had left Wilbur in the cave they were now and then went to the piglin infested thing. That sounded right, but what had he done after that? Picturing a room with a broken floor, he started recalling stuff; There had been a stair, he had gone up those stairs and had found a chest with weapons. Said weapons he now noticed were at his side.

“-They seemed to be really scared and I mean you are covered in blood so-” Wilbur was clearly telling him something important, but he was too late to paying attention.

“I found these” Techno signaled towards the sword, and then showed Wilbur the crossbow which left him in awe at the shine. “There was a chest in there” He set the crossbow in Wilbur’s lap, who took a moment before daring to touch it. “I think it’s serves you best”

“Thank you, Techno, but what the fuck happened?” Only another confused look as response. “You weren’t listening were you”

“I’ll admit, I was getting distracted by thinking”

Wilbur sighed, resigned to explaining again. “Well, I was saying that before you scared the living crap out of me, the piglings were screaming and running and there was blood-” Techno immediately moved away from Wilbur, surprising him. He was going to ask but Techno was quicker.

“I’m sorry I didn’t- Did I hurt you? What did I do?” Panic was quickly raising, was Wilbur hurt? Had he passed out while hurting him? Was that why he had been laying on top?

“No no no no! You did nothing!” Wilbur was quickly to say. “I’m not hurt” Techno still looked at him worried and didn’t move closer. “I’m fine, I swear”

Techno still had his worries, and while doubting Wilbur wouldn’t tell him if he had attacked him, the feeling of insecurity at the lack of memories was still there. He would keep his distance, just in case.

“Wait, how did I get here?” Wilbur seemed a bit hesitant to answer. “Wilbur?”

“Wellllll…. I mean you walked here”

“Wilbur.”

“You did kind of scare the living crap out of me since you weren’t answering but-!” Wilbur was quickly saying, seeing that Techno was getting paler by the word. “As I said you didn’t hurt me”

Techno stayed quiet, looking down. He couldn’t imagine how Wilbur must be feeling, since he must have been scared to death and was now trying to for some reason make it seem like less than the big problem it is. He was sure that if he moved closer the other would flinch, and maybe it was the shock of all which made the other act in less of an accusing way, maybe he was trying to not get Techno angry in fear he wouldn’t live this time; That seemed like a good explanation.

He brough a hand to his face and in midst the wetness he felt the pointy tusks that now peeked from his lips and stiffened when he touched them; He had been so caught up in remembering the facts that Wilbur’s observations had gone over his head. He slowly touched one with his index finger, surprised when he could _feel_ it as part of his mouth. Opening his mouth slightly, the sensation felt foreign yet right.

Wilbur had also said something about his eyes being red, he was pretty sure of that. Last time he checked they had been blue, so that was clearly a change too; If it was a new one or not, he didn’t know. While the tusks were clearly something new, he wondered if his eyes had changed too with Phil when he had fought- when he had almost _killed_ the man. But he didn’t have either after _that_. That must mean this time the changed were physical _and_ mental, which had struck a new layer of fear and doubt on himself. 

He needed to get to the tower fast; this had shown him that each time it would get worse and he needed to hurry. But for that he would need a portal and he-

Quickly standing up, he made Wilbur jump from the surprise after being so quiet and static while thinking.

“Wilbur, I found a thing- It was in the room inside” It could work; but he would need the other to see it. “It was a black stone- like a framework? I think it was complete, but I didn’t get a good look”

“Wait- do you mean?” Wilbur now stood up too, expectantly.

“It’s inside there- I’m pretty sure it’s the portal you talked about” Wilbur seemed to be ready to go at his words. “But I would rather have you check it”

“What are we waiting for then? Let’s go!” He started walking to climb down the small cliff, Techno starting to follow when the other stopped before going down. He was going to ask what had happened when he saw the answer; The corpses of all the pigling slaughtered laid in the rock, their blood a brighter red than the rock below them. He gave a quick glance at Wilbur, not knowing what to say; But the other just took a moment before going down the rock.

Catching up to Wilbur, he noticed the quick glances he gave to the body’s laying down but just as quick moved away. The smell was quite strong, and he could assume that it was even worse for Wilbur who unlike him didn’t have a ‘ _past’_ life full of battlefields where it was always present.

Techno walked towards the entrance and could hear the hesitation before another pair of steps were on his back. He tried to be quick; the corpses were giving him a weird case of a spit filled mouth, and after realizing the wetness in his face had been blood, he dare not to question the feelings further.

They reached the stairs and he allowed Wilbur to go first, which was met with a quiet ‘ _thank you’_ and a hurried walk up the stairs. He followed and when reaching the room noticed that Wilbur was ignoring the very burnt corpse and was focusing into the framework, checking for any missing part.

“It-It seems to be all right” Techno didn’t miss the stutter and the way his eyes didn’t meet his own but was okay with not saying any comment about it. “This _could_ work, but we need to ‘light it up’ to be sure” Techno nodded in understanding. “Do you have anything that can make fire?”

He looked down, seeing his new sword on his belt. He thought about using it, but quickly realized that while it said it had a fire enchantment, those didn’t work unless used to fight. It was simply unpractical to enchant a sword to always lit on fire; A fire hazard if you would ask him, but gave it a tap anyways, since _it was_ a sword from this hellscape of a place. He wasn’t surprised when it didn’t light up on fire, but he was surprised when he felt something ‘ _clink’_ on his pocket.

He had forgotten about the lighter, but he was now feeling as if he had found money on an old pair of pants.

“Here, I think it still works” He gave it to Wilbur, so grabbed it giving it a glance over.

“Well, here goes nothing!” He lights up the flame, both holding a breath in anticipation. He moved it towards the rock, and as soon as it touched the dark ring a purple light spread from the contact point towards the other edges of the frame. Wilbur gasped and moved backwards, a whisper of ‘ _holy shit’_ leaving his mouth. Techno was surprised too, part of him had expected it to fail. Well, that part could be buried down below when Wilbur hugged him, surprising him.

“Techno it worked! It’s working! We are getting out!” It was hard to not feel all giddy when having a warm hug by a happy laughing guy, Wilbur seemed to have all stress leave his body the moment the light had appeared.

“We are!” He gave a small smile, thought it hard to keep it while he could still see the burnt corpse. Wilbur didn’t notice it, rather checking himself.

“Do you have everything?” Techno checked quickly, but he didn’t have that much to begin with. Giving a nod, he allowed Wilbur to go first. “You sure?” another nod. “Well, see you on the other side!”

And with that, he was gone. Techno was impressed at how quick it was, he just crossed it and was immediately somewhere else. He went to follow but heard a voice that froze his blood and his feet in place.

_“ **You have to stay”**_

Slowly turning to see the stairs, he could see a faint red light get stronger by the second. He felt like he had to follow the order, even if the idea scared him to the core; As if his unconscious told him to stay and his logic to leave.

It wasn’t until a pair of antlers on top a black skull met his eyes that he turned and jumped into the portal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all enjoy this <3 My university decided to have the main page shut down 6 times when eveybody was trying to enroll class and we were not vibin' at all LMAO.


	18. Back in track

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno and Wilbur pick up were they left and the Dream team is back to catch up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit short, I had sm problems to write this week :c sorry

The grass felt nice in his hands. This time he had not passed out and neither had Wilbur, so they both looked at each other from their positions on the ground as they had fallen when going through the portal.

“Holy shit… it worked!” Wilbur was grinning from ear to ear, standing up to look back at Techno and then at the still lit up purple frame that was with them. He was not touching it but kept looking at it in awe. “I can’t believe that worked.”

Techno stood up, noticing the surroundings. It was not the closed forest from before and the last road he remembered was not close at all. What surprised him was that close he could see both the gray and brown horse now looking at them from the spot they had been munching grass on.

“Carl?” Seeing the bag at the side, he moved forwards towards the horse with a small thank you to whoever was up there for their horses. The horse gladly accepted his pets, making him thankful for Carl’s intelligence.

“Bloody Xisuma!” Wilbur said walking towards Techno, where he petted his own. How had the horses gotten here was a mystery, but maybe it had something to do with how portals worked. Wilbur would have to comment it to Jschlatt next time he saw him. “I have never been so glad to see a horse.”

They would not have to walk, and for one Techno agreed that it was a blessing to have that opportunity. He went around to mount but looked back at the portal. He was not sure what had been that thing; It seemed like it was not following them for now, but he could take any chances. Looking around he noticed a small pond of water, so he took a bowl out of the bag (which thankfully still had all the items from before) and went to fill it with water.

“What are you doing?” Asked Wilbur, looking at the bowl curiously. “You are not going to drink that, are you?”

“No” Techno walked towards the portal, earning a gasp from Wilbur when he throwed the water into the portal, making the purple light go up in a smoke cloud out of existence. “Just making sure nothing follows.”

He went to mount his horse, Wilbur mimicking his actions. “Yeah that… that makes sense. Yeah” Wilbur kept looking back, but when Techno started moving, he followed. “So… what now?”

“We find a place where we can ask where we are” Techno quickly glanced at him, Wilbur looking around and agreeing with a nod. He had not noticed that they were somewhere new, but he could not feel that nervous with a plan already made. “We need to find a path and follow it” Wilbur just nodded again, but Techno noticed he was keeping a bit of distance with his horse. He did not ask if it was deliberate or not and being honest, he didn’t want to know the answer.

“I’m going to have to make a ballad about this” Techno looked back at him weird, and Wilbur looked offended. “You expect me to not write about this? We go to hell and back _and you don’t expect a song?”_

“Just keep me out of it”

“You know- I’m starting to think that you don’t have ballads because of your attitude” he was pouting, and techno looked back with a betrayed look.

“Heh? I just don’t see that as a good idea!” Wilbur looked at him laughing “Why would you admit to going to hell?”

“As if someone would recognize it” He kept laughing, Techno with a hint of a smile on his face. “And if they do, what are they gonna do? Admit it?”

“I feel that you are taking hell rather well.”

“Well-” Wilbur seemed taken back for a moment. “I mean, yeah it was scary, but I rather **_not_ **think of all the things that could gone wrong” Techno gave a small ‘hmm’ and kept looking forward. He guessed he was right; thinking too much about those things would fill his mind with anxiety, and right now that was the least desired thing.

Wilbur looked at him from behind, he knew that they would need to talk about _the other part_ eventually, but right now he wanted to relax. He needed to make sure they were on the same page but didn’t have the energy to do a heavy conversation at the moment. Techno was probably blaming himself which was wrong; he hadn’t hurt Wilbur, he had scared him, yes, but he hadn’t hurt him and wasn’t going to. He had a hard time explaining why he wasn’t blaming Techno, he didn’t want to even thought his mind kept telling him that he could of died.

He would have to sort himself out before even bringing the subject up, so small talk and jokes would cover his real thoughts for now.

Dream was in front of everyone with his horse. He knew that they were going as fast as they could, but still wished for the horse to go even faster. Bad had ran into the room almost screaming and showing them their palm with a light only Dream had recognized, which prompted him to run to suit up on armor knowing for sure the rest would follow. It had been a bit chaotic, the months of waiting not feeling enough now.

They were closer, they knew that much. Bad could track better now, the light moving and making his heart race with expectation. It was brighter and stronger and _easier_ to track. The caster was not with it but that just raised too many questions to worry about, so he left them on the back of his mind. The only thing they had to worry about was getting to it before it found people and caused chaos.

Dream looked back to make sure everybody was following all right; they had left the city via a back entrance not many knew about, since they didn’t think that civilians wouldn’t be suspicious if the somewhat famous group left in a hurry in front of their eyes. Niki’s place was already in a more secluded part of the city, so he was thankful it hadn’t been that much of a problem to go unspotted.

To be true, he was worried. He wouldn’t say it outright but knew that Sapnap, George and Bad could see it in his movement. The mask could only cover so much on his face, but voice and body were unprotected from their knowing gazes. Still, he would try his best to show the usual excitement of adventure and ignore the worries of danger.

They would get there, kill it and go celebrate back.

Easy enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry how long it took to publish this; Electrity n water got cut cause a car crashed into a pole and they broke a pipe fixing that' so it took a while to be able to use the computer again. Still, i'll try to make up somehow... !!
> 
> Hope y'all enjoy this still :')


	19. Finally there

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finally reach Manberg, but it seems they are not alone on that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I'll write more!  
> also me: How about i sleep for no reason.

They had been closer to manberg than they had expected.

‘How do portals work’ was a constant question on Wilbur’s mind after realizing that while riding through the forest they had found a very familiar path, one which he had traveled to the point of knowing every rock in it. It was the road between the farms outside Manberg and well, _Manberg._ How did they get so close so fast was a question for his friend later, but right now he was just amazed at the fact.

Techno had seemed surprised and even… _sad?_ When Wilbur told him about it but had easily gone to a neutral expression. They hadn’t been talking that much and since Wilbur didn’t start a topic the other made no start of his own which led them to be quiet most of the time since Wilbur felt a bit weird to do more than small talk.

He kept thinking back to the hole in the wall, the moments after Techno had passed out on his lap. He had been so confused and relieved about it that he had just stayed there looking down to the others unconscious face while calming his breaths, not even fully processing the facts. Right now, he felt just as confused, but this time was about how he should feel about it all.

On one hand, he wanted to throw the man to the mob of people and be done with the fear that had resurfaced, but on the other he had learned to appreciate the other to the point where it was easy to forget the circumstances. The horse race, the tiny gasps when Techno spotted a bunny, the way he would walk close to him when there were too many people around; He had started to have flashbacks to when they were with Phil, and while the man had taken care of those quest in the insides of the forest Wilbur had been stuck with those that would have been considered boring, but to Wilbur those were fun. Every single conversation with Techno had given him the impression that an endless stream of mystery’s were waiting to be known; having given proof that the other knew a lot about other era completely confirming it.

Those moments were the ones that had settled a certain fondness for Techno in his heart, even If he had been against admitting that they had become friends. It was weird, after knowing the weird circumstances that allowed Techno to live again, he had been learning something good and bad at every instance.

The first instance, he learned about how he was a demon but would rather kill himself than hurt others. When he learned that the people had not liked him, he had gotten worried until the explanation that it was because his job was not a pretty one. He smiled to himself remembering how embarrassed the other had been when he explained that beside his job, he had only potatoes to keep him company. It was the contrast between the violent actions and outer impression with the soft and anxious inside that made him so confused about how to feel.

He saw that they were already close to the door of the city, so he put his thought on the back in the meanwhile. He was going to take the lead so Techno wouldn’t talk, but he had stopped which in turn made Wilbur stop.

“What’s the matter? Did you see something?” Techno turned to look at him, and slowly raised a hand to point to his face. “What? I don’t- Ohhhhh” He had forgotten about the tusks and red eyes which were probably worrying his friend.

“I don’t know how to explain them” he lowered his hand and looked down to the back of Carl’s head, petting it. “Do they need to see my face, or is that not a necessity now?”

“They still do, but I don’t see the problem” Techno just stared at him. “While it’s not common to have red eyes n’ tusks we can just say you got like, caught on magic or something” He prompted his horse to go again, Techno quick to follow. “We can just say that you came to get it fixed or something”

He seemed satisfied with the answer, but Wilbur knew that it was because Techno counted on him to convince the guards about it. He sometimes wondered how did he got to be a knight with how much he avoided talking to everybody.

As he suspected, the guards gave them a weird glance but they recognized Wilbur enough from all his visits to eat up the excuse and let them pass without much trouble. He saw Techno’s posture relax and smiled a bit at that, but something else was weirding him out. Looking around at the main street where they found themselves, he took in everything that was happening; The street was long since it crossed the whole city, and after the doors there was a small space for the cargo to be taken care off. After that, every citizen from child to adult was seen in their business, the older going around to either sell the goods or get them, from vegetables to fruit to clothes and tools. It was those things which had piqued his interest.

As far as Wilbur knew, in spring people would be buying flowers for the festival that was going to happen by the end of the season. And yet, the melon fruit was being sold at an offer, as he heard the screams of the vendors when they left their horses in the common stable. The man was kind even if he was a bit freaked out about the tusk’s on Techno’s face, but he had eaten the same excuse that the guards had before.

Techno must have noticed his stares into the fruits because he gave him a confused looked and asked. He told him to not worry, that he was just surprised because they were selling them sooner. Techno didn’t ask again but told him they should probably find a place to rest for the night, since they had to discuss the next steps. Wilbur had agreed but had a took a moment later to process what was said.

He had just realized that they were in fact in Manberg, and that it was the place were he was supposed to split with Techno. He was walking towards the inn, being followed by Techno yet he was mostly in autopilot; He had not realized the implications of arriving there. Was he happy for being free to go away? Was he sad? He did not know. God, the felt like suddenly things were speeding up too fast for him to catch up with them.

He kept walking, barely aware if Techno was following. He had to assume he was, so he concentrated on opening a path between the very busy people who were all over the place as it was common for the market area. Focus on the task at hand, that was his idea. Focus on that and let all the doubts for later. Get them a place, get some rest and then think. Maybe a drink or two would help. Also food.

It took them a bit, since people were pushing and rushing everywhere. They were lucky Wilbur knew how to maneuver the place, since every visit there was an experience engraved to his head. It was that knowledge that allowed him to take Techno to one of the more secluded inn’s, one that had a special place in his list.

 _“Pogtopia”_ was the name of the place that was now in front of them, after walking through alleyways and less crowded roads. The place was quite tall as it was the norm in the city, and the window was decorated with flowers. The sign with the name was proudly displayed over the two door entrance, giving an inviting feeling towards the people who found it.

He was quite fond of the place, going inside and confirming that he was still being followed when the door took a bit longer to close. It was on those tables that made the main room more comfortable that he had sung his first song on the city, and it was om those seats where he had meet Jschlatt who at that time was for him just a random man who had a bunch of fun facts. He had almost got scammed by him, but sheer luck allowed him to best him in cards and get his respect which had led to now having a friendship and a bunch of free drinks with new songs.

The girl behind the counter seemed surprised at seeing him, yet recognized him in an instant.

“Hi Wilbur! Haven’t seen ya’ in a while” She was smiling, but spared some quick glances to Techno who was reading something on the counter.

“Hasn’t been that long has it?” she gave him a small laugh, going under the counter to pull out a book.

“I assume a room for two? The page is marked, you know the rest” He nodded and went to check the red mark on the book, opening the last page that had been written in it. He grabbed the pencil that she had already left at the side, and went to write down their names. The list of today had the word Wednesday and the date on numbers, and he wrote under the other 6 names on it. He was going to give back the book but stopped himself to re-check the date.

It had to be wrong.

Techno touched his shoulder and showed him what he had been reading, a paper decorated with the drawing of an arena with flags, the words “ _Summer championship inscriptions open! Be fast! Reward: 10000 gold”_

“What’s this?” he was being asked, but the nerves on his mind stopped him from answering. The girl caught up on them so she went ahead and talked.

“Not from here, are ya’? It’s the summer competition!” Techno looked at her, his non expressive face not bothering her. “They always rise the money… It’s going to be in about three weeks, and they still allow inscriptions! But ya’ bet there are some real talents there. Mr Dream is the Champion so I wouldn’t dare go, but others want a challenge.”

 _‘It’s going to be in about three weeks’_ Wilbur had to hide his surprise. Suddenly the melons made sense, and after thanking her, he lead Techno towards the room with their number, his mind making a note of asking Jschlatt about why the fuck he had not explained the sudden time jump they had done.

The moon was up in the sky, illuminating the street in front of them at the late hours of the night. Dream felt kind of bad for the guards that had clearly not slept enough for their night shift which still had one or two hours until dawn allowed them to change shift. It was a blessing for them that even if he had not shown his face, Dream and the rest were recognizable enough so that a checkup was omitted, and they could go straight through the gate without all the checking up.

Manberg was so different at night since there were at most some drunks on the side’s of the street, singing with slurred words one of the common songs of the taverns around or straight up passed out after a night of drinking. He looked at them imagining how it would be when they could get drunk after finishing their mission. They had already left their horses on the stable when bad took the lead and moved around, until they were in front of a now closed inn.

“It’s inside there” Bad whispered. “It’s on one of the top floors, not moving”

“Well we can’t enter now” George said. “There are people there, and we can’t risk panic.”

“What do you think?” Sapnap looked at his masked friend. Dream stopped looking up and started moving to the closest place with a light on.

“We’ll get a room and wait. We just have to make sure it doesn’t leave without us knowing” Bad was the only one behind, he was crouching in the door of the other inn. Dream guessed he was putting some sort of alarm; It wouldn’t be the first time he had done one, and so he gave a small nod and went inside to set them in.

Now they would just have to sit and wait until they could get the demon alone, so they could finally put and end to the stupid chase.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoy!


	20. Stop thinking and wag your tail.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wilbur does some more thinking' and techno is having fun with a fluffy dog.   
> Don't mind the people that keep following them around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all enjoy <3 <3 <3

Even thought they had the curtains closed, the sun found a way to cross the gap and fall directly on Wilbur’s face. He tried to roll away, annoyed that his sleep was being interrupted by the warm and uncomfortable feeling in his eyes, but it was clear from the start that if he had woken up sleep was already too far gone from him. Looking to the side he could see that Techno was also awake, but for some reason was looking up to the ceiling and had it not been for the small movement of his chest, Wilbur would have thought he was dead because of how static he was.

He took his hand out of the covers and gave a small gesture that went unseen, whatever Techno was thinking about seemed to keep him deep in thought. Instead of calling out to him, Wilbur decided to give him a bit more time since it seemed to be early to need to stand up, and he had to be honest in the fact he also needed some more sleep. Last night he had been up for quite a while, even after finishing a letter that was quickly sent with the local post man towards the capital to Jschlatt. He explained to Techno that they were in summer, a conclusion the other had suspected after the girl had told him about the Summer competition but was now confirmed thanks to Wilbur.

Since they used the last remaining daytime to get the supplies they missed, they hadn’t talked that much after booking the room, and even after they had settled down for the night Techno had gone straight to sleep, leaving Wilbur to his own mind. Techno hadn’t talked about what he would do now, in fact they hadn’t talked too much after entering the city, but he had been too distracted to notice the silence.

He had been thinking about everything that had happened. Back when they were with Phil he had gone back and forth between liking and hating the guy, to then be sure that he was at best a future problem and at worst his nightmare reincarnated. Then they talked, and he realized how wrong he was. The ‘façade’ that he was so sure existed was proven to be his own imagination, and the more they talked the more he had a hard time remembering why he hated him.

Even after the incident, his thoughts were mixed at best. He had been scared; he had felt the dread of death and the smell of the bonfire in that cave. But he hadn’t been killed, he had been hugged. He knew that things could of gone way different, but the key word was the they _could, and they didn’t._

He then asked himself which option was the one he liked the most; to part from him and forget they had even met, or to stay and see everything to the end.

Now on the morning he felt Techno make a move to stand up from bed. His hair was rather messy and the clothes he had used to sleep were as wrinkled as the bed sheets under him. He seemed to still not notice Wilbur, who gave him a ‘ _hey’_ that made Techno jump in surprise. Wilbur gave a small laugh at the slightly embarrassed face.

“Good mornin’ ” Techno went to the small drawer in the room, looking for a brush. The lady downstairs had him about it when they had come back yesterday, and he was almost sure it was because he probably had made a mess of his hair on their trip. Wilbur was stretching on his bed like a cat, so Techno made a point of staying quiet in case he was going to sleep again.

He was a bit nervous about talking to Wilbur for he knew that the other had to go, but while he wouldn’t stop them from going away, he was not happy about it either. He supposed he should be thankful that after that last disaster Wilbur hadn’t demanded a monetary compensation and gone away. Heck, he should be thankful he wasn’t being thrown to the authorities for all he knows.

Leaving those thoughts for later, he guessed he should check the city to prepare for the tower. A map was needed since he checked and the one he had was not enough to get there without problems, and his money was running low for his tastes. He was going to have to check if he could make it with that or he had to save a bit more, which meant he had to find the quest guild or whatever this city used for those.

Maybe Wilbur would leave before he came back, so they wouldn’t have to say goodbye.

He gave a quick explanation to the still sleepy Wilbur who hadn’t stood up from his spot on the bed and went to the bathroom to change his clothes, not bothering to hear any answer the other would give him. Making a point of being quick, he was soon ready to leave, so he left the room and walked towards the stairs to go down. He was approaching the door when a sound behind spooked both him and the girl in the counter.

“Techno wait I gotta do some stuff-” Wilbur seemed to have rushed dressing up, his clothes messy and his hair in need of some more work.

“Oh Wilbur! I forgot to tell you this!” The girl clasped her hands and went to search for something under the counter, making them both wait. Techno wanted to leave but he felt that it would be rude to do so after being called out. The girl seemed to find it, and gestured Wilbur to get closer.

“The mail guy came a week or so ago, left a note for you!” She gave a small paper note to him, which he immediately took a loot at. “He had been told you would be here but couldn’t find you, so he left it here. I mean, you do always come here…”

Wilbur seemed to be concerned with the contents of the note but gave a quick thanks to her and walked towards Techno, who followed him when Wilbur walked past him to the exit. He went quietly after him, not knowing if he _was_ meant to follow. They went out and then he let himself be guided again towards the main street.

It wasn’t until they had walked for a while that Wilbur turned around and realized he had been silent.

“Oh shi- sorry, Didn’t mean to leave ya’ like that.” They were still walking but he kept glancing back while explaining. “Apparently Phil sent a letter, He’s probably worried since we were gone for… well, months apparently” Techno gave a quick nod of understanding, and just listened to Wilbur talk about how he was going to read their letter and answer as soon as possible, since he didn’t want the man to worry anymore. Techno had to agree on the feeling, he missed and Phil and didn’t wish harm to be his way.

Techno looked back at the streets, and while he followed Wilbur he felt that something was wrong in the people. He couldn’t point out what was it; he just saw smiling faces of the florist and his client, of the baker and the happy kids who ate buns on the street. Even the dogs seemed to be in peace surrounded by the busy street of people.

He went to talk to Wilbur about the weird feeling but realized that they had reached the building where mail was managed, so he had been left alone outside. Must have been too distracted to hear the other leave. Looking around thing still seemed to be okay, the only difference being his now aware alone status among a bunch of people he didn’t know. He wanted to go do his chores but feared that Wilbur wanted him to stay there; after all he hadn’t heard at all if the other had said anything about it.

Still deciding what to do, he was surprised by a small tug at his pants. He was quick to glance down to see the culprit, which was a small fluffy dog that was currently wagging their tail and panting with their tongue out. Techno looked at it nervously, it was a really cute dog and he really wanted to pet it yet he looked around to see if it had an owner.

When nobody seemed to be, he crouched down to pet them. ‘ _Fluffy’_ was the sensation and thought he had, giving a small smile. The dog wagged their tail even more, but then licked his hand and turned to run into an alleyway. Techno was surprised but happy at the small interaction, even if it was short. He would of gone back to just waiting but a small head peaked out of the alley wall. He looked back at the dog, who was peeking and going back to the alley, as if playing with him. Techno gave a small laugh and walked towards them, surprising them to the point of giving a small bark. They then did a circle around Techno, to then run even deeper to the alleyway and do the same game at the corner.

Techno looked back for he was already inside the alleyway. He didn’t want to go too far away, but also didn’t want to leave the dog to play alone, having a soft spot for pets was his biggest weakness. He supposed that he could play a bit before going back, so he again followed the dog towards the alley. Again the dog seemed to be happy at the play, and ran towards the next corner.

Instead of peeking out, it was a pained cry what made Techno ran towards them. He quickly came to the corner and turned, only to be greeted by the sight of his new friend being trapped in a thrown line of metal, that had tangled itself with their fur and was hurting them when they tried to go away. He approached their friend and crouched to help, trying his best to not hurt them further when getting the metal out.

If he hadn’t been so focused, he would of noticed the other presence on the alleyway.

Dream was quick to get ready, he had not slept that much anyway. His mask and hood made it easier to hide his bed hair, so he didn’t waste that much time on that, just moving it enough to not block his vision. Bad was also up, the nerves of being so close to the demon preventing him from sleeping. Sapnap and George had gotten some sleep but had been ready to go when Bad had woken them up alerting them of the movement.

They had all been ready the moment they left the inn, going towards different hiding spots to surround the entrance of the other inn. Bad would signaled them when the demon came out, and they would be able to corner it before it reached the main street so they could _deal_ with him. They had been waiting for a bit when Bad signaled that it was going to go out.

Dream held a breath, expectantly.

But then nothing came.

Bad received the weird looks of his friends, and quickly gestured ‘ _it stopped inside’_. The nerves went down a bit, but they kept looking out for the moment. Dream was curious about how the demon would look; probably like a normal person, given it was probably hiding.

What he couldn’t predict was a tall pink haired man with tusks to go out with a very messy bard.

It wasn’t hard telling which one the demon was that Bad had signaled it moved, given that they looked the part with the deep red eyes that luckily didn’t spot them. They were a bit confused as to what to do; they seemed to know each other and it would make it difficult to perform their mission without alarming the common folk. They resigned themselves to keep an eye to the man, not allowing him to harm anybody and waiting for the moment he was alone for them to end him.

Dream guessed the bard was probably under a spell to be accompanying such a clear demon, and to act _friendly_ towards them as they saw when they talked on the street. He noticed the bard was the leading one, which surprised him a bit since he had assumed he was more of a mind slave. What he also noticed was the pink haired man turning at point to look around and he feared that they had been spotted, but when the bard entered the post office and left the man alone he went from looking around to looking to the main street.

The four of them were across the man, hidden in another alley. They were discussing how to get the demon to follow them so they could kill it alone, when Sapnap interrupted.

“What is that?” he pointed towards the man who was now crouching down and… petting a down? Sapnad had to stop himself from going ‘ _awww’_ at the picture. Bad didn’t stop himself, George looking at him with a funny look and Dream was just looking curiously at the interaction. It made him feel weird for some reason, to see that. They all saw how the dog seemed to go away but then start a game of hiding. The man seemed conflicted about it, but at the end played along and both of them walked out of their sight into the darkness of the back alleys.

They were quick to follow, making sure to not draw too much attention to themselves. The last thing they needed was to be stopped by someone when they were practically being handed the perfect scenario. They reached the alleyway and noticed how the man was turning by the end of it, and cautiously approached it.

They had reached the end and looked at the man who was again playing with the dog. The dog was wagging their tail and then ran to the next corner, but both them and the man were surprised when a pained cry was heard. The man was quick to ran after the dog, but Bad had stopped them from following. Dream was about to protest but saw the scared look on his friends face, who now pointed to something else in the alley.

At the other end after the corner, was something that made their skin crawl. The ‘skin’ was black and dripping, and the legs didn’t touch the ground when moving the four legged body with a teeth filled skull towards the corner the man had gone to. The antlers didn’t touch the side walls so it made no sound, giving them the creeps. Dream could recognize a caster even in the darkest of nights, so seeing one in broad daylight presented no problem, other than the fact that there was a _caster in a city full of people and nobody had noticed, the fuck-_

They saw it go down the alley, and with a small look of understanding between them they slowly moved towards it themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all liked it <3 Thank to everybody who has commented,,, it really makes my day :'3! 
> 
> I wanted to get somebody to start beta reading these cause i do make a bunch of mistakes but i always end up writting them so slowly that a beta read would make me upload like, once a month LMAO.


	21. Author note

So i haven't updated this in a while.  
  
Imma b honest, I lost my motivation to write this because i didn't like how i had been writting it.

I think that the story was too long for someone who hasn't written any fanfic before this, 

I don't feel like continuing it (I don't know if i regain my motivation later but i'll be honest; i don't think so.)   
  
So I wanted to ask;   
  
I could leave this as hiatus in the off chance i get motivated again, or i could call off the proyect now.   
In the 2nd case, would you guys want me to give the plot away?   
  


I'm setting the title to hiatus for now. I'm sorry i didn't set it to that after i stopped writting!

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading <3


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